This article was first published on RNZ.
Māori writers are gathering in Rotorua this week for the fourth year of the Kupu Māori Writers Festival.
The two day festival begins on Friday and is sold out, writers taking part in the festival include Patricia Grace, J. P. Pomare, Dr Monty Soutar and Dr Hinemoa Elder among many others.
Festival Kaihautū Ruakiri Fairhall said this year they had expanded the festival line-up to include more “word wizards,” that is poets, composers, publishers and translators.
In a change from previous years one day of the festival will be purely dedicated to te reo, from the emcee, to the writers, to the participants, he said.
“It’s an opportunity for us to ensure that through Kupu, we can bring te reo rangatira to life within these ancestral whare that we host these events to ensure that ancestors get to hear the language that they once spoke when they were alive.”
Fairhall (Ngāti Tarāwhai, Te Arawa, Te Whakatōhea, Te Whānau a Apanui, Ngāti Awa) said there is a growing number of Māori writers writing in both languages.
“There’s a really strong focus in translations of pukapuka (books) that are already written predominantly in English, which is great because it ensures that we have an opportunity to keep our language ahead in terms of new terminology or vocabulary that comes into our spaces.
“But we need to create more writers in te reo. We need to write more in te reo from the get-go and so we hope that Kupu can provide an opportunity to bring new and up-and-coming writers together, as well as current successful Māori writers who write in te reo Māori, to possibly work together.”
Fairhall encouraged writers to expand their skills to include to reo, but he celebrated all people who are writing, whether in English or te reo.
“The population of Māori writers are definitely growing and they will keep growing. We just need to ensure that we have both languages walk in parallel together to ensure that we don’t let the English language take over the concepts that exist in kupu Māori.”
Writers Retreat
Earlier this year in mid-August, Kupu hosted a writers retreat at Lake Ōkataina near Rotorua.
Fairhall said the retreat gave writers the opportunity to be in a place where they wouldn’t be overwhelmed with so many people while having access to a plethora of talented writers.
One moment from the Writers Retreat that stuck out to him was from a workshop with author Shilo Kino and featured one young rangatahi who initially didn’t seem like much of a reader but was soon able to make a connection with the book.
“So as Shilo passed her book around, just for them to have a look at the cover, this girl picked up this book and she never let that book down until she got home all the way to Taupō and managed to read 84 pages from Shilo’s workshop all the way to the time she got home.
“And although we may not have created a writer in that young girl, but we gave her an opportunity to dive into a pukapuka that she could relate to.”
Fairhall said the writers retreat and festival provide an opportunity for Māori and non-Māori to connect with Māori stories.
“Our kaupapa for Kupu is to celebrate past, present, and future writers. It’s also to create a new generation of Māori writers.”
By Pokere Paewai of RNZ.
