When David Cook moved to Hamilton East he was drawn to the colourful and creative lives of his neighbours. Camera in hand, he explored everything from front-yard mechanics to Sunday roasts, making an intimate documentary of a state housing suburb in the nineteen-nineties, moments before gentrification set in.

Looking back twenty-five years, we see burgeoning issues of relevance today — housing, bicultural relations, social welfare and freshwater quality — all brought to us through the lens of daily life. The title refers to the local street names, commemorating governors general of the early twentieth century; reflecting on that colonial heritage, Cook writes an engaging account of the suburb and, together with Wiremu Puke, unearths suppressed histories and rewrites our understanding of the Waikato landscape.