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Our Family Tree Letters from a life at sea.

Correspondence from the collection

Letters from a life at sea.

Huia’s letters to his mother, 1925–1928. The original collection, page by page.

Chile. The salt mines.
And letters home.

After being stranded in Chile, Huia spent two years working in the salt mines before a ship took him onward. These letters tell that part of his story.

His handwritten letters were lovingly typed up around 1990 by his first-born daughter, Heather McAven. The scans below preserve that transcription in full.

Read Huia’s life story

29 pages · in their original order

Select a page to read · use the arrow keys to turn pages

letter01 — PAGE 01Huia’s letters · 01

letter1 — PAGE 02Huia’s letters · 02

letter1 — PAGE 03Huia’s letters · 03

letter2 — PAGE 04Huia’s letters · 04

letter3 — PAGE 05Huia’s letters · 05

letter4 — PAGE 06Huia’s letters · 06

letter5 — PAGE 07Huia’s letters · 07

letter6 — PAGE 08Huia’s letters · 08

letter7 — PAGE 09Huia’s letters · 09

letter8 — PAGE 10Huia’s letters · 10

letter9 — PAGE 11Huia’s letters · 11

letter10 — PAGE 12Huia’s letters · 12

letter11 — PAGE 13Huia’s letters · 13

letter12 — PAGE 14Huia’s letters · 14

letter13 — PAGE 15Huia’s letters · 15

letter14 — PAGE 16Huia’s letters · 16

letter15 — PAGE 17Huia’s letters · 17

letter16 — PAGE 18Huia’s letters · 18

letter17 — PAGE 19Huia’s letters · 19

letter18 — PAGE 20Huia’s letters · 20

letter19 — PAGE 21Huia’s letters · 21

letter20 — PAGE 22Huia’s letters · 22

letter21 — PAGE 23Huia’s letters · 23

letter22 — PAGE 24Huia’s letters · 24

letter23 — PAGE 25Huia’s letters · 25

letter24 — PAGE 26Huia’s letters · 26

letter25 — PAGE 27Huia’s letters · 27

letter26 — PAGE 28Huia’s letters · 28

letter27 — PAGE 29Huia’s letters · 29