September 06, 2021
Māori writers get research boost
Māori writers have benefited from this year’s Copyright New Zealand and New Zealand Society of Authors research grant round.
Lauren Keenan from Te Ātiawa ki Taranaki will use her $5000 grant to work on a middle-grade novel about the New Zealand Wars titled Rākau: The Lost Tree.
The 2021 selection panel said the project is an immediately engaging work which will draw children and their families into an understanding of history.
Bonnie Maihi got a grant to pursue her project The Brilliance of Resilience: Hope for a generation, which will draw on her doctoral research at the University of Waikato on education and occupation pathways for rangatahi growing up within gang spaces in Aotearoa.
The panel says her insider’s lived experience coupled with her academic training gives Maihi the unique skill set to bring the stories of similar wāhine to the fore.
Other research grants went to Anthony Green of the Christchurch Muslim community for a book about lessons from the mosque attacks, and Lillian Duval for a book on attitudes in Aotearoa to insects.