Abstract: Draws on a conversation between Wood and Adams, both tauiwi (non-Maori) academics, exploring challenges, innovations, and paradigms of care at a time in NZ history when colonising processes had already affected Maori. Traces the origins of rural, district and Plunket nursing. Provides insight into the structure and content of the book, its value in recording the history, proactive leadership, and practice of modern nursing as instigated by the British nursing diaspora.