Book Launch | Unsettled Bliss by Elizabeth Ann Cook

Scorpio Books and Mary Egan Publishing warmly invite you to the Ōtautahi Christchurch launch of Unsettled Bliss: whiteness in Aotearoa by Elizabeth Ann Cook. This powerful new book confronts whiteness in Aotearoa – its history, its consequences, and the responsibilities it demands.

All welcome, refreshments provided. Please send in your RSVP.

Pre-order your copy of Unsettled Bliss today!

ABOUT THE BOOK

If you do not know the history of Aotearoa after the 1835 Declaration of Independence and Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1840, Unsettled Bliss offers a clear explanation of settler occupation, its impact on indigenous land in Aotearoa, and the lasting consequences.

However, it goes beyond that. This book enables you to understand what drove people to act as they did – and what continues to shape our society today.

Unsettled Bliss challenges you to reflect on your place in the society of Aotearoa. It pulls no punches. For many, it will be an awakening – an unflinching look at how racism operates in our everyday lives, within our whānau, workplaces, and institutions. If you seek to deepen your understanding of social issues, wealth disparity, and political structures, this book is essential reading.

No other book to date has so comprehensively examined the system and ideology of whiteness in Aotearoa. Bold, enlightening, and necessary – Unsettled Bliss belongs in every serious collection on the history and future of this land.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Elizabeth Ann Cook is a writer, thinker, and social critic with a passion for challenging complacency. A sixth-generation non-Māori in Aotearoa, her identity is shaped by her English, Irish Catholic, and Welsh ancestry. Born in Whangārei in 1956, she grew up there before settling mostly in Ōtautahi.

Her diverse career spans music, theatre, and education. As a singer-songwriter, actor, and Te Reo Māori teacher, she has led early childhood music and movement classes, taught drama, released four albums of original music, and worked in devised theatre and Commedia dell’arte mask-making.

Completing a PhD in Sociology in 2021, Cook now extends her lifelong engagement with critical thinking into non-fiction writing. Her work examines how everyday behaviours reinforce harmful social and economic systems, and she is particularly interested in deconstructing language, power, and privilege.

An avid student of Aotearoa’s history, Cook has been influenced by scholars such as Moana Jackson, Ani Mikaere, Vincent O’Malley, Ranginui Walker, and Alan Ward, as well as international thinkers including Achille Mbembe, Frantz Fanon, Cedric Robinson, and Judith Shklar. She spent 12 years under the intellectual mentorship of academic Mike Grimshaw, refining her ability to interrogate dominant narratives and cultural assumptions.

Currently working as a Reporting and Policy Advisor in a kaupapa Māori organisation, Cook remains committed to asking difficult questions, pushing boundaries, and sparking conversations that challenge the status quo.

Media contact: Rebecca Simpson, Fantail Communications. 021 955 942, rebecca@fantailcommunications.co.nz.