Literary honour 'reward for a lot of hard yakka'

Professor Ranginui Walker says people's perceptions of him may have altered, but he hasn't changed a bit. Photo / Martin Sykes

Political commentator and academic Ranginui Walker says people these days think he has mellowed.

But the 77-year-old from Te Whakatohea, who was last night honoured for his non-fiction work at the 2009 Prime Minister's Awards for Literary Achievement, says he hasn't changed.

"People's perceptions have changed as they have become conscientised," said Professor Walker.

"They see me now as an elder statesman and some Pakeha who didn't like me in the past say 'you have mellowed in your old age' and I say 'no, you have caught up, I'm the same person'."

The Emeritus Professor and Distinguished Companion, who refused a knighthood this year because it was "snobbish", joins previous recipients of the award who include the late Michael King, Anne Salmond and Philip Temple.

Poet Brian Turner and fiction writer C.K. Stead were also recognised for their respective contributions to the New Zealand literary scene.

Each writer received $60,000.

Professor Walker, who is working on a book on Maori tertiary providers,
Te Wananga o Raukawa, Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi and Te Wananga o Aotearoa, said the award had never crossed his mind.

"However it is just reward for a lot of hard yakka," he said.

"It takes a lot of research and commitment to write books so I'm really pleased about it."

As an author who polarised opinion with his columns on Maori and Pakeha relations in the 1970s and 1980s, he said he was often caught in a difficult position.

Mainstream society thought he was an outspoken and troublesome radical while members of pioneer Maori activist group Nga Tamatoa believed he was more a "limousine liberal".

But coming from a Catholic background who went to a private Maori boys' school and whose parents both voted National, Professor Walker said he "couldn't have been more conservative" or "part of the establishment".

"I was a conservative academic writing from a relatively objective point of view and I was privileged to be at a lot of activist developments throughout the 1970s as a participant observer writing about them and informing Pakeha, 'hey this is what's happening and coming'.

"Our Pakeha readers were not happy because it upset their cosy notions of our Maori being tame and unthreatening so they didn't like it or the messenger, so I was classed as a radical."

Creative New Zealand chairman Alastair Carruthers said the work of Walker, Turner and Stead came of age in times of political, artistic and social change and heralded a new order among the local literary community.

Turner, the brother of cricketing great Glenn and former professional golfer Greg, is one of New Zealand's most significant writers on landscape, environmentalism and sport.

He is known for his fresh perspective to nature poetry and his personal but unsentimental approach.

C.K. Stead came to prominence in the 1950s as a protege of Frank Sargeson and Allen Curnow before he went on to gain an international reputation as a critic with The New Poetic: Yeats to Eliot (1964).

The literary critic, poet and Emeritus Professor of English at The University of Auckland's novels have been translated into 12 different languages.

His 1971 novel Smith's Dream provided the basis for the film Sleeping Dogs, which later became the first New Zealand film released in the United States.

"Their body of works are a lasting legacy, works we read yesterday, today and will continue to read in the future," said Mr Carruthers.

"In influencing the writers of the future we look forward to more from these humble guardians of New Zealand's literary voice."

Each year, the public is invited to nominate their choice of an outstanding writer who has made a significant contribution to New Zealand literature.

The nominations are assessed by an expert literary panel and recommendations forwarded to the Council of Creative New Zealand for approval.