Lay down the wero
Rangimarie Sophie Jolley reports on this year’s rich Verb Festival Te Hā Maori writers programme.
Literary festivals have become hubs for some wild imaginings – and it’s no surprise. A concentration of that many storytellers would naturally lend itself to this level of wilderness. Last weekend’s Verb Festival showcased this brilliantly.
Each year, the festival is curated by a sophisticated team of readers and writers contributing to a vast network of events, and the collective authorship is growing. A stream of the Verb Festivities this year was curated by Te Hā o Ngā Kaituhi Māori, spearheaded by Nadine Anne Hura (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Tautahi) and Anahera Gildea (Ngāti Tukorehe).
Te Hā is Toi Māori Aotearoa’s support roopu for Māori writers, who usually congregate annually for the Te Hā Māori Writers Hui. Te Hā shines a spotlight on diversity – there’s no one way to be a Māori writer, so there’s no one way to showcase Māori writing.
This year, Te Hā’s contribution to Verb was bestowed upon myself and fellow writer (and photographer) Trinity ThompsonBrowne.
We were privileged to host a takatāpuitanga kōrero – a session on writing ‘beyond the binary’ – alongside essa may ranapiri (Ngāti Wehi Wehi, Ngāti Raukawaki-te-Tonga, Te Arawa, Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Pukeko). We touched on the importance of Māori being able to tell their own stories, in their own ways and presented many more questions than answers. It inevitably landed us at a place where we were forced to ask – what might change look like, when profit drives the very fixed systems our opportunities exist within?
Enter ongoing event Poetry with Brownies, held during Verb at Pātaka in Porirua, founded by recent Ockham winner and absolute Boss Human Nicole TitihuiaHawkins (Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa, Ngāti Pāhauwera). Poetry with Brownies was a hit, with an incredible new wave of emerging indigenous poets - Mariwakiterangi Paekau, Waitahi
niwaniwa, Chantelle whina, Sionainn King and Nadia Hineaorangi Solomon who took the stage alongside seasoned writers such as Kassie Hartendorp, Meriana Johnsen, Gem Wilder, Miriama Gemmell, essa may ranapiri, Stacey Teague and others.
‘Toi Kupu i te Pō (poetry in the dark)’ at
Meow in Pōneke was an opportunity for us to showcase the wide range of our community in the form of a dramatic, dark, flirtatiously fun eve. Each poet, and each poem, was an ode to the experiences of wāhine Māori – wielding every ounce of wāhinetanga into the space.
Tarah Ah Kiau, Arihia Latham, Nadia Hinerangi Solomon, Rangikaumoana (Vonny) Jackson, Jessie Lee Robertson and Miriama Gemmell brought their magical, powerful kupu into the night and blasted their voices through the space.
‘Whai Kākahu, Whai Kupu’ was an opportunity to speak with the legendary Whiti Hereaka about her journey to bring Kurangaituku, the unfathomable lead character of her award-winning novel, to life. We spoke of the weaving of feathers and words to create clothing that helped to not only demonstrate how Kura could exist in Whiti’s form, but also how bringing characters to life in this way gives parameters of how to deal with them safely.
The festivities closed with the sun shining on a session about ‘Te Kaha o te Kōrero’, Story ¯SovereigntyA with a panel of Te Hā curators and Qiane Matata-Sipu (Te Waiohua, Waikato, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Pikiao, Cook Islands) of the portrait project Nuku100. An invigorating exploration of the importance of knowing how, when and why we tell our stories. It was an epic way to end an incredible series of events.