Māori Literature Trust board member Rangitihi Pene, Māori Literature Trust chairwoman Robyn Bargh, Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell, Kupu festival director Ruakiri Fairhall and Te Puia sales and marketing manager Sean Marsh at the announcement the Pikihuia Awards will be held in Rotorua. Photo / Annabel Reid
Māori Literature Trust board member Rangitihi Pene, Māori Literature Trust chairwoman Robyn Bargh, Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell, Kupu festival director Ruakiri Fairhall and Te Puia sales and marketing manager Sean Marsh at the announcement the Pikihuia Awards will be held in Rotorua. Photo / Annabel Reid
The number of Māori writers is growing and Rotorua is extending a welcome to them all.
For the first time in its 30-year history, the Pikihuia Awards will leave Wellington and be hosted in Rotorua this October.
The biennial event honours excellence in Māori writing. It would run alongsideKupu Ngā Ringa Tuhituhi, New Zealand’s only Māori writers’ festival. The festival, set to begin in August, was returning to Rotorua for its fifth year in a row.
Māori Literature Trust chairwoman Robyn Bargh said when she first founded Huia Publishers in 1991, there were “very few Māori writers”.
Bargh grew up just south of Rotorua on a farm in Horohoro, describing the place as a small Māori community with a marae, a church, a school and farmland.
It wasn’t until she travelled overseas and discovered culturally driven writing that she realised her own childhood Māori experiences were largely absent from New Zealand literature.
Huia Publishers was created with the vision of growing Māori voices in New Zealand literature. The company established the Pikihuia Awards as part of this vision.
After moving back to her hometown, she said the biggest thing she had noticed was how many people were writing.
People were “dabbling” in writing songs, poems, plays, “a lot of different forms of writing”, something she described as “amazing”.
Bargh said she writes, but wouldn’t consider herself a writer. Many of those she would describe as writers likely wouldn’t call themselves that either, she said.
Māori Literature Trust board member Rangitihi Pene composed waiata and haka for Rotorua kapa haka groups such as Tūhourangi Ngāti Wāhiao, Raukura and Ngāti Tarāwhai.
“If you ask him what he does, he probably wouldn’t say ‘I am a writer’, but he does,” Bargh said.
It was the same for all the people writing “long and detailed histories” of their hapū and whānau.
Makoha Gardiner (left), Rangitihi Pene, and Robyn Rangihuia Bargh in front of Te Papaiouru Marae at Ohinemutu, where the Kupu festival will be opened with a pōhiri. Photo / Supplied
Bargh said this growing energy made Rotorua a fitting home for the writer awards and festival.
“Come with an open mind,” Bargh said. There was so much for aspiring Māori writers to learn by listening to other writers speak.
Some will leave you “on the edge of your seat wondering what on earth [they are] going to say next”, she said.
Ngahuia Te Awekotuku will be at the Kupu Māori writers’ festival this year. Photo / Ben Fraser
Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell said the festival and awards helped preserve the “very rich” Māori stories by encouraging people to write them down. .
Tapsell said the events were “inspiring” and “empowering” for rangatahi (younger generations), especially considering Rotorua’s large Māori population.
“We need something that sparks joy in our lives, and these stories do for many people,” she said.
A dedicated writers’ retreat would be held at Lake Ōkataina Lodge from August 15 to 17.
Set for October 17 and 18, the Kupu festival would feature more than 40 Māori writers, with 20 new to the event. This included Ngāhuia Te Awekotuku, Monty Soutar, Hinemoa Elder and Shilo Kino, as well as new voices like Michelle Rahurahu, Te Kahukura Boynton and Poia Rewi.
For the first time, a full day of the festival would be held entirely in te reo Māori.
The festival wrapped up with the Pikihuia Awards at Te Puia on October 19.
More information about the retreat, festival line-up and special events, including how to get tickets, can be found at www.kupu.org.nz or by following Kupu on social media.
Annabel Reid is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, based in Rotorua. Originally from Hawke’s Bay, she has a Bachelor of Communications from the University of Canterbury.
