Tributes flow for poet Tuwhare (+photos)

Hone Tuwhare. Photo / OTAGO DAILY TIMES

Political and cultural leaders have today been paying tribute to Hone Tuwhare, one of New Zealand's most celebrated and prolific poets who died yesterday, aged 86.

Tuwhare's work was renowned for its accessibility to the general reader but his popularity did not come at the expense of critical acclaim.

He was named New Zealand's second Te Mata Poet Laureate in 1999. Tuwhare won two Montana NZ Book Awards for poetry in 1998 and 2002, and was given honorary doctorates by the universities of Auckland and Otago.

Poet Alistair Te Ariki Campbell toured the country with Hone Tuwhare in the 1970s as part of the 'Gang of Four'.

Campbell said Tuwhare "sprung from the raw material of Maori culture" and that was what made him special.

"Most of us - Glover, Curnow, Baxter and I had university education but he had nothing to do with that.

"He was able to write poems that had an immediate appeal, direct poems. Often he wrote poems on political themes but quite often too just lyrical poems, about the women he loved.

He was unique in that respect," he said.

Campbell said Tuwhare had a strong reputation and introduced a "genuine, profound Maori dark note" into New Zealand poetry.

"He was a boiler maker by trade from a so-called working class background. He was able to write poetry that appealed widely. He was a strange person in some ways because most New Zealand poets have gone through academic training - high school and university - but I don't think he made it through the high school years," Campbell said.

But although Tuwhare was working class in the Pakeha world, he was revered in the Maori world because of his chieftain family ties, he said.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Helen Clark said Tuwhare had made an outstanding contribution to New Zealand literature.

"Hone Tuwhare was a distinguished poet, playwright, and writer of short fiction. His poetry contained powerful imagery of our land, sea and legends, and often expressed strong views on contemporary issues," Miss Clark said.

"Hone's death will be felt deeply by all who valued his lifetime contribution to New Zealand literature. My thoughts are with his whanau and close friends at this sad time."

Maori Party MP Hone Harawira said Hone Tuwhare was a writer who could "say what people really felt in their bones".