May 12, 2021
Maori writers explore new ways to tell stories
The curator Māori for the Auckland Writers Festival Waituhi o Tamaki says she wants to encourage other Māori to turn their natural storytelling abilities into writing.
Poet and musician Ruby Solly says there is worldwide interest for indigenous writing, which raises questions about how stories are told and who they are for.
"The best way to do that is to have as many versions and as many stories and as many people in te ao Māori writing as possible. The more stories there are, the more versions there are, the more those stories are going to resonate with people not just here but around the world, but it's here that really matters because if you read a story you can see yourself in, it can show you a map for being, in a way," she says.
The programme from Friday to Sunday includes a session on Tino Rangatiratanga in Publishing, in which Patricia Grace, Anahera Gildea and Essa May Ranapiri will discuss the efforts over the past 50 years by Māori to create alternatives to mainstream publishing;
– Our Full Selves in which Ruby Solly talks to Nic Low, Kiri Piahana Wong and Qiane Matata Sipu about how writers have to weave their way through multiple worlds;
– and Holding the Pen, on the challenges of telling whanau and tupuna stories.
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