Koro, the old one, is the Keeper of the Sacred Lore. Seven elders gather in his little seaside shack to try to chart a path for the tribe’s survival, a path that will bring together the ancient and the new: a knife-edge dangerous course. Confronting their people with the old tribal mantra… we are of the sea and the sea is of us… they issue a brave challenge. It will send their Stone Seekers to the deep snows of the mountain trails, their Tree People into the primeval forests where the tall trees honour thousands of years of growth and their Star Walkers to the Long Tidies where the wildest of seas contend. Now, ancient tribal truths, so tragic they have been hidden for centuries, have to be revealed. While they cannot change the past, they realise they can heal the past, but only if they face the painful truths of the past. That pathway to redemption has been too long denied. Only by washing the blood off the stone can the tribe survive. Above all else this they know… if we lose our story we lose our dream and if we lose our dream the spirit dies. Barry Brailsford, New Zealand, graduated MA (Hons) in History from Canterbury University, was a member of the NZ Archaeology Association Council and a Principal Lecturer at the Christchurch College of Education. In 1990 he was awarded an MBE for his contribution to education and Maori scholarship. Since 1990 he has been writing full time. Barry's work is a journey through the wisdom traditions of indigenous pacific peoples.