Festival lacks Ma¯ori writers

Organiser ‘disappointed’

The Ma¯ori portion of the Manawatu¯ Writers’ Festival has collapsed on the eve of the event, leaving organisers red-faced.

‘‘I feel bewildered and disappointed,’’ festival organiser Rachel Dore said.

‘‘We did everything we could, and tried to be as respectful as we can be, only to have everything crash and burn.’’

The four-day festival is due to start in Feilding on Friday, but with a lineup that lacks Ma¯ori voices after the way the organisers went about trying to secure them seemed to backfire.

Dore said she’d hoped to build on the success of having several Ma¯ ori speakers and panels at last year’s inaugural festival.

She teamed up with a Ma¯ ori woman with solid connections to local iwi and writers to help create a larger Ma¯ori-focused portion of the 2018 programme, including a half-day hui on Ma¯ ori literature.

But after she pulled out for personal reasons, the whole Ma¯ ori side of the programme collapsed at the last minute, Dore said.

The end of the festival also coincides with Ma¯ ori Language Week, adding further discomfort.

Ma¯ ori writer and film-maker Wiremu Grace, son of acclaimed writer Patricia Grace, said he was often asked to join organising committees for film and writers’ festivals, but was wary of this approach.

If securing the Ma¯ori component was left up to one person, it could be difficult and isolating, and that person could crumble

‘‘We did everything we could, and tried to be as respectful as we can be, only to have everything crash and burn.’’ Festival organiser Rachel Dore

under pressure if they knew Ma¯ ori might not end up represented at all, he said.

In the worst cases it was tokenism, with organisers ticking boxes to deflect criticism.

But even with well-meaning people, culture clashes and misunderstandings could isolate a single Ma¯ ori voice.

Grace now refuses to take part in such committees, unless there’s at least a few other Ma¯ ori or people who have shown a good understanding of Ma¯ ori culture.

The film industry showed what was possible, he said.

It’s easy to rattle off the names – Taika Waititi, Cliff Curtis, Lee Tamahori, Temuera Morrison and Keisha Castle-hughes – all Ma¯ ori performers and directors who had found success, and there were plenty more who could be added to the list, Grace said.

‘‘[New Zealand literature] needs to look at what changed with the film industry for that to happen,’’ Grace said.

Whanganui-based writer and historian Danny Keenan said Ma¯ ori representation in the arts was important.

‘‘Literature is a conversation about our shared culture, and Ma¯ori should be a part of it – that’s why having no Ma¯ ori at all at the festival is such a shame.’’

He felt the need to speak out about the 2018 programme, especially after last year’s Whanganui Literary Festival also involved no Ma¯ori writers, he said.

Massey University lecturer Tina Makereti said Ma¯ ori writers were almost entirely overlooked in New Zealand literature.

When researching her PHD, she found Ma¯ori writers accounted for 4 per cent of New Zealand fiction in the three years to 2007, against 15 per cent of the population.

More than a decade later, the situation had not improved.