In Kāwai: For Such a Time as This, Monty Soutar turns to fiction to explore the lives of Māori soldiers during the First World War, particularly those who served in the Pioneer Battalion.

The novel follows a group of men drawn from different iwi as they move from Aotearoa into the disorienting theatres of war, carrying language, whakapapa, and responsibility into a conflict that is not their own. Soutar balances battlefield experience with questions of identity, loyalty, and survival—what it means to fight for an empire while remaining tied to land, culture, and community.

The narrative shifts between personal and collective perspectives, building a sense of shared history rather than a single heroic arc. It’s a work grounded in research but driven by character, concerned with memory, inheritance, and the afterlife of war.