First published in 1994 by Melbourne's Spinifex Press, Cowrie is the opening novel in Cathie Dunsford's acclaimed Cowrie Quartet.

A Māori writer of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Porou and Te Arawa descent, Dunsford builds a novel that moves between Aotearoa, Hawaiʻi and the wider Pacific, exploring Indigenous knowledge, colonial histories and the ongoing work of cultural survival. Part literary fiction, part political novel, it refuses to separate intimate life from questions of land, language and sovereignty.

Its protagonist, Cowrie, is a Māori woman, writer and activist whose travels become a way of tracing connections across the Pacific rather than national borders. The novel is rich with oral histories, ecological knowledge, mythology and contemporary politics, creating a distinctly Indigenous form that privileges relationships over linear narrative. Endorsed by Audre Lorde shortly before her death, Cowrie remains an important work of Indigenous feminist literature, ideal for readers of Patricia Grace, Witi Ihimaera, Alexis Wright or Linda Hogan.

1994 first Spinifex Press paperback. Excellent condition with only light shelf wear; clean throughout with a firm binding.