INFINITE THREADS
100 Insights from Old Māori Manuscripts

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Do you want to:

• find out how an ancient worldview shines a light on today's world?

• take a deep-dive into old wisdoms​?

• get the non-fluff version written for real people?

Yes? Then this book is for you.

For thousands of years, the Maori tohunga, sages, passed closely guarded knowledge to new generations of sages, using an orally coded system. Two hundred years ago, they started recording that knowledge into secret manuscripts.

Why did they suddenly abandon their oral traditions?

Who were they writing for?

Can this indigenous knowledge provide us with a beacon in our time?

Infinite Threads presents rare insights through the imagined voices of the old sages. Their words, by turns, are gritty, loving, blunt, funny, rousing. Their writings are eloquent expressions for what moves us—love, rage, compassion, grief, joy, fear, and identity.

Discover how the Insights help you understand your power, integrity, and purpose—and maybe even this strange world you now live in.

Read about the oceanic voyages, creatures in their lairs, love trysts, living cosmos, deeds of all kinds, and how they teach you to connect with others, the world, and universe.

Learn about the colonial history that nearly obliterated an indigenous esoteric knowledge system—how the Sages saved it and why it matters. And follow the author’s journey beyond the confines of her social and cultural conditioning, from fear towards freedom, and her ultimate decision to share these insights.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The author Robyn Kamira writes under the pen name Mariko B Ryan. She lives in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and hails from the northern tribes of Te Rarawa, Te Aupouri and Tai Tokerau whanui. She is a kaitiaki, guardian, of the writings of her great-grandfather – a well-recognised tohunga, knowledge-holder – and has spent her life studying and writing about the esoteric knowledge of her people.

Reader requests and recent world events have inspired Robyn to share this selection of insights from ancestral knowledge, so others may share and benefit from our collective journeys.

WHO HELPED ALONG THE WAY​

E tuku ake nei te mihi aroha kia ratou. This acknowledges the several kaumatua (elders) and Maori knowledge-holders who shared countless stories and assisted with interpretations and contexts from their times – including many who are no longer with us.

REVIEWS

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Moving and thought-provoking
Holly J. Shepherd

Timeless and timely wisdom made both entertaining and enlightening! Author Mariko B. Ryan speaks in what her readers can easily imagine to be the voices of her ancestors, but throughout the book she adds her own unmistakably modern voice to the narrative, infusing the stories she tells with humour and wit. This is a wonderful read that both makes you think and gives you hope for the future ... but charges you to realise that the fate of the future is in your hands. Highly recommended.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Eye Opening and Fascinating
Jonathan M

Wow! What a beautifully written story of the rich history of New Zealand and its indigenous people. The wisdom and themes the sages passed along to future generations is as relevant today as it was hundreds of years ago.

Author Mariko B. Ryan made this a great read. Very much enjoyed learning about the Maori people and their fascinating culture - highly recommend!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wisdom
K Ellis

Wisdom is timeless as Mariko B. Ryan shows in this beautiful conglomeration of the insights of her ancestors tied in with the events we face today. Compelling and beautifully written, Infinite Threads reminds us how interwoven history is with the present and how we can learn our lessons from our elders.

344. Ancient knowledge is not ancient.
345. It is now. It is retrievable and we can put it to good use
347. What rushes through the rupture may be an abundance of brilliant insights for the sincere learner, or an outpouring of nonsensical fantasies for the self-absorbed and superstitious.
348. So, let us not go like fools.

Whether for curiosity about the Maori people of New Zealand and their thoughts and history, or desire to search out wisdom, Infinite Threads will not disappoint.

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A True Taonga (sacred gift) to be Forever Treasured and Handed Down
Christel Broederlow

The author did this book and her Tupuna (ancestor) justice in transcribing these old manuscripts. Sharing age-old wisdom and timeless knowledge that is needed more so today than any other time in living history. Talk about timing for the publication in 2020, what a year!

There is meaningfulness throughout this book that can hold relevance to ones life journey that is worthy of our contemplation, how does this resonate with me and why? It is an absolute taonga to be treasured and handed down to the next generation, to find clarity, purpose and support, its almost as though one is listening to the voice of our own Tupuna guiding us along, ensuring we have all the tools necessary within us if we dare listen and embrace these ancient teachings.

I am grateful to the author for her endurance, to overcome the many challenges that confronted her from the moment the manuscripts came to her and for the commitment to persevere, in bringing it to us, thank you, brilliant, beautiful, poetic and powerful. May it guide us all forward with courage and aroha and respect to hence we come.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Fascinating and beautifully written
Kathleen G. Strickland

The most beautiful, enlightening and informative part of the book was the narrative on the history and culture of the Maori and New Zealand. The insights were thought provoking, and something to return to for further study. The narrative was stunning!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A deeply insightful book
Blake Templeton

Infinite Threads is a unique and deeply insightful look at Maori culture. It provides a different look at life, and beautiful lessons on how to live every day to its fullest. It was a very interesting read!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Engaging!
Jaclyn Goldstein

Mariko B. Ryan has created a masterpiece that is beautifully crafted around translations of the Maori Manuscripts. Readers will find themselves hooked right from the beginning, learning the history while also discovering more about themselves.

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The wisdom of Māori people
Dvnwrrr

This book is a celebration of culture, the culture of what the general public recognizes as the Maori people, the indigenous people of New Zealand. It focuses and sheds light on the core of their culture, their spirituality, and the mindset of their ancestors. A challenge to academic circles, this book rings with integrity and the honest insight of an insider, rather than the sterile observations of Western influence.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Unique. Impressive.
James l. Jordan, PhD, PhD and Deovina N. Jordan, PhD, MD

The use of stories has been traditionally used, by different people across cultures, to convey messages that people have meaningful lives and their histories have a purpose of defining who they are.

It may be true for many people that their past has little meaning, leading them to giving in to fatalists and leaving them on barren grounds. But, as the author indicates, that need not be the case. Truly, one thing sets humanity apart from all other species in the world. It is the ability to convey knowledge across time and space.

In this book “Infinite Threads: 100 Indigenous Insights From Old Maori Manuscripts”, the author does well in communicating the Maori stories both to current readers and to future Maori, now and in the time to come. We commend the author for her unique story-telling style and for the impressive amount of work she had put into writing this book.