Te Kaituhi Māori
Nau mai, haere mai ki te kāhui o ngā kaituhi Māori.
Welcome to Te Kaituhi Māori, the new organisation for Māori writers. Formally established in 2024, the chair is Witi Ihimaera. Perena Quinlivan is Te Māngai Māori ki te Poari Representative and komiti member. Patrons are past-President of Honour Witi Ihimaera and Haare Williams writer and rangatira o te reo.
Te Kaituhi Māori is an exciting evolving space designed to bring together, support, and uplift the voices of kaituhi from across the motu and beyond. It hopes to develop an inclusive and collaborative, rather than competitive, kaupapa with Māori-led organisations publishers, libraries and festivals having significant Māori components, the Māori Literature Trust, Te Hā o Nga Pou Kaituhi, Kotahi Rau Pukapuka and so on. As well, it expects to widen involvement of Māori literary practitioners previously not catered for in te reo including te reo translators, academia, film, television and other electronic media. This will be their atamira.
Events 2025
2025 Te Kaituhi Māori mentorship and assessment programmes
Applications OPEN NOW until April 10, 2025.
NZSA Kupu Kaitiaki Programme for Kaituhi Māori – 2025 Application form HERE
NZSA Kaituhi Māori Mentorship Programme – 2025 Application Form Here
Upcoming workshop for Te Kaituhi Māori in March
Toi Iho March 25, 2025 6.30 – 8.00pm
IP Workshop Te Mana Whakamahi Mō Ngā Toi Māori: Copyright and IP beyond Legal Frameworks
Presenters:
Lynell Tuffery Huria Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāruahinerangi, Ngaa Rauru KiitahiLynell Tuffery Huria is a member of the Toi Iho IP rōpū and is recognised as the first Māori Patent Attorney and is acknowledged as a leading expert on indigenous intellectual property rights, Māori intellectual property, and trademark protection.
Dr Karaitiana Taiuru Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti KahungunuDr Karaitiana Taiuru is a member of the Toi Iho IP rōpū and is an advocate and proponent for online and digital Māori rights, cultural appropriation, Māori representation and Intellectual Property Rights, raising tikanga Māori and mātauranga Māori awareness in digital and other new technologies.
Moira Lomas Ngāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, WaitahaMoira Lomas is the manager of Toi Iho. She worked with Toi Iho ringatoi, and the IP rōpū to put together Te Mana Whakamahi Mō Ngā Toi Māori, a tikanga Māori approach to IP.
Te Mana Whakamahi Mō Ngā Toi Māori
The protection of Māori cultural knowledge sits at the intersection of intellectual property (IP) law and tikanga. While legal frameworks, such as copyright and trademark law, offer some safeguards, they are fundamentally limited in addressing the collective and intergenerational nature of Māori. These laws prioritise individual ownership, fixed durations, and commercial transactions, often failing to recognize the holistic, relational, and ongoing responsibilities embedded in cultural heritage.
Existing IP systems do not adequately prevent cultural appropriation, as they are largely based on Western legal principles that do not align with Indigenous worldviews.
Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are training on information unwittingly shared, and some have been trained on stolen information including Indigenous knowledge and artistic expressions, without consent or proper attribution. This further exacerbates issues of misappropriation and challenges the ability of creative and Indigenous communities to control their own intellectual and cultural property.
Come along and hear more about these issues, share your experiences, and find out what steps you could take to protect yourself.
The Toi Iho Charitable Trust Board is committed to the promotion of high-quality authentic Māori art and Māori artists through the controlled application and use of Toi Iho trademark Māori Made, The Best of Māori Art.
The workshop will consist of a short presentation, then:
Lynelle – a brief overview of legal Copyright (and changes coming)
Karaitiana – AI overview and how to be safe
Moira – the tikanga IP process
And then a Q and A
NZSA members FREE; Non-members $75.00 Register HERE
SAVE THE DATE!
GISBORNE MĀORI WRITERS HUI, 9 – 11 OCTOBER, 2025
Tui Tui Tuhia Tairāwhiti – Poho o Rawere marae
Kaituhi Māori’s third hui following Orongomai and Motueka is scheduled for Gisborne October 9-11. Witi Ihimaera will be the convenor of this full three-day hui which will be held coincident with the Tairāwhiti Arts Festival.
“The main programme will take place at Poho-o-Rawiri marae,” says Ihimaera, “but visits are expected to take place to Waituhi, one other marae yet to be confirmed, and workshops in writing whakapapa, writing in te reo, fiction, poetry and film will be held at various city venues. We hope to run a parallel programme for
rangatahi writers.” The hui will be co-organised by the TaiTech Writers Hub run by Ihimaera’s sister Polly Crawford. “People will have to register for the hui,” he says, “as places will be limited. The fact that the hui will be held at the same time as the arts festival means that participants will be in Gisborne City at a very festive time. We are planning a night of readings and recital at Poho-o-Rawiri and a banquet kai.”
A programme will be available in April or May when registrations will also open. “Having regional hui in both islands is going to be one of the signature activities of Kaituhi Māori going forward,” says Ihimaera. “We think this is the best way for us to grow the pūtea of our writers of the future. Following Gisborne, we plan to have our hui in Nelson the following year, 2026.”
Draft programme and registration/accommodation details will be announced in March.
To register interest in attending please contact: tekaituhi@nzauthors.org.nz
Professional Development for Kaituhi Māori
We’re drawing from the collective strength and knowledge our community of Māori writers to essentially create a whata for our excellence to sit on.
Ruby Solly (Kāi Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe) has created a toolkit module for kaituhi Māori; Paula Morris ran a webworkshop on writing first-person.
These sessions will become living artefacts that can feed many generations of writers.
Writer Toolkit: What is the whakapapa of the world you’re writing?
Ruby Solly
What is the Whakapapa of the World you’re Writing? What has gone in to creating this place of your own imagining? This toolkit module looks at how we build the whakapapa of our imagined and re-imagined worlds within our writing as Māori writers. We will look at different exercises and experiments to help us bring out this whakapapa, to highlight it within our work. Join us to explore the worlds of our kaituhi, and to craft spaces of our own to explore. A module suitable for all genres, we look at ahua, aesthetics, lore, whakapapa, and more in a module designed to value play, creativity, and our potential as creators of our own worlds that descend from us as Māori. This online module has been recorded and is free to all NZSA Te Kaituhi Māori members.
Ruby Solly (Kāi Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe) is a writer, taonga pūoro practitioner, and doctor of public health. She has had poetry published in Aotearoa, Australia, America and Antarctica, and has had two books of poetry long listed for the Ockham book awards; ‘Tōku Pāpā’ (2020) and ‘The Artist’ (2023). As a taonga pūoro practitioner, musician and composer, she has worked with artists such as Tararua, Trinity Roots, the Auckland Philharmonia, and Yo-yo Ma. Within all her work, world building and story telling are the waka and winds that drive her forward.
Photo credit: Ebony Lamb To access this Toolkit please contact: tekaituhi@nzauthors.org.nz
Kōrero:
Te Kaituhi Māori hosted a webworkshop in October 2024 with Paula Morris, Witi Ihimaera, Perena Quinlivan, Te Mangai Māori ki te Poari o Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa and members of Te Kaituhi Māori.
First-person: writing personal essays and short stories – with Paula Morris
This Webworkshop explored the art and craft of writing short first-person narratives – either true stories (creative nonfiction) or invented ones (fiction). We’ll discuss excerpts from the work of various Māori writers to inform the way we shape stories and evoke character, setting and situation. The focus is the first-person point of view – the ‘I’ of the story – and its opportunities and challenges. All participants will get a set of exercises to help develop their own work after the class.
Paula Morris MNZM (Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Whātua) is an award-winning novelist, short story writer and essayist. Director of the Master of Creative Writing at the University of Auckland, she is the founder of the Academy of New Zealand Literature; Wharerangi, the Māori literature hub; and the online Aotearoa NZ Review of Books. She edited the 2023 anthology Hiwa: Contemporary Māori Short Stories.
Photo credit: Colleen Maria Lenihan. This Web workshop was recorded and is available to view as a Writer Toolkit HERE
2024 Events:
Ngā Pae Rewa Pū Kōrero – The Uprising of Storytelling Hui
Labour Weekend October 2024, Te Awhina Marae, Motueka
Fellow Māori writers shared knowledge, connected and uplifted ngā kaituhi Māori. The weekend featured workshops and kōrero with Witi Ihimaera, Hamish Bennett, Mat Tait, Paula Morris, Te Paea Maurirere, Perena Quinlivan, Nuki Takao, Renee Kahukura – Iosefa and others.
Ngā Pae Rewa Pū Kōrero Itinerary
Tui Tui Tuhituhia (Come together, write)
Ōrongomai Marae, Upper Hutt, 3-5 May 2024
This wānanga follows on from “Tui Tui Tuhituhia (Come together, write),” the first major undertaking by Te Kaituhi Māori was the holding of a wānanga at Ōrongomai Marae, Upper Hutt, 3-5 May. The wānanga attracted Māori literary practitioners to discuss the question: What is the world of Māori writers? Prominent exponents like Patricia Grace, Haare Williams and Witi Ihimaera featured talking about their careers and what it has taken to sustain themselves within the whakapapa of New Zealand literature. The wānanga offered panels discussing such topics as Who are we? What has been our trauma? What do we need to assure our future? Special events acknowledged those Māori writers like Keri Hulme and Renée who have died recently, evening readings programmes, and a “Rangatahi Speak” forum for young writers.
These wānanga are expected to inaugurate a biennial series. Te Kaituhi Māori’s plans are in place for the Gisborne event to take place in October 2025 (dates to be advised). Poho-o-Rawiri marae will be the major accommodation and lecture/seminar venue but visits to other venues including Rongopai, Waituhi, where workshops on writing in te reo, children’s writing, rangatahi sessions and writing whakapapa are planned. Whereas the two earlier events at Orongomai and Motueka have been wānanga, the Gisborne event is planned as a larger hui over a 3–5-day period coinciding with Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival.
As well as wānanga and hui, Te Kaituhi Māori will be offering professional development wānanga – both kanohi ki te kanohi, and online. If you wish to register your interest, or have any requests for particular topics, themes, speakers, we welcome your thoughts and feedback. Link to interview about the event
NZSA Kaituhi Māori Mentor Programme
The Kaituhi Māori Mentor Programme launched in 2024 to give emerging writers who whakapapa Māori the opportunity to work closely with an acclaimed Māori writer as their mentor to hone their tuhituhi ability and, in the process, evolve and refine a work toward a publishable state.
Read about the 2024 recipients
NZSA Kupu Kaitiaki Programme
The aim of this kaupapa is to provide new and emerging kaituhi with valuable feedback from a skilled Kupu Kaitiaki, for the refinement of a part of a manuscript written in te reo Māori. This programme launched in 2024.
Read about the 2024 recipients
CONTACT: tekaituhi@nzauthors.org.nz
Join Us
Come join us on this haerenga! Not an NZSA member or already a regional branch member? Fear not e hoa, you can still join our rōpū!
To join our rōpū, and/or for pātai and pānui, please do get in touch!
This will enable us to develop a competent inclusive database, we don’t want to miss anybody out. If you are interested in serving on the committee, do let us know. We are looking for a couple more committee members right now and, also, for serving as future committee members.
We welcome you, and your whakaaro to ensure this space is as valuable and welcoming as it can be for you and kaituhi Māori katoa.
We are grateful for Matua Witi Ihimaera for helming Te Kaituhi Māori and encouraging our leadership so that we may grow it for our generation.
We also acknowledge the significant mahi, vision and tautoko of Kim Harris and Michelle Rahurahu.
Ngā mihi nunui ki a ia.
Mō mātou
Perena Quinlivan
Perena Quinlivan (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi, Waikato-Tainui) is a Tāmaki Makaurau based writer and founder of Te Puna Consulting, which provides business advisory, management consultancy and project management services.
He grew up in Hawkes Bay and graduated from Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Auckland, the University of Sydney, the Australian Graduate School of Management, Te Whare Wananga o Aotearoa, and Te Whare Wananga o Raukawa. Perena has worked in the private sector and in a variety of senior roles in central and local government. His fluency in Bahasa Indonesia enabled him to work both as a New Zealand diplomat and a Sydney-based management consultant in the Asia-Pacific region for several years.
Perena is a former recipient of an NZSA mentorship. His poetry has been published in New Zealand journals. He is also part of the Te Kaituhi Māori branch komiti. Perena is Te Māngai Māori ki te Poari.
Paula Morris
Paula Morris MNZM (Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Manuhiri, Ngāti Whātua) is an award-winning novelist, short story writer and essayist. Director of the Master of Creative Writing at the University of Auckland, she is the founder of the Academy of New Zealand Literature; Wharerangi, the Māori literature hub; and the online Aotearoa NZ Review of Books. She edited the 2023 anthology Hiwa: Contemporary Māori Short Stories.
Paula is komiti member of Te Kaituhi Māori.
Witi Ihimaera
Witi Ihimaera (Te Whanau a Kai, Te Aitanga a Māhaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Porou) is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading literary practitioners with over 30 creative works including theatrical and film to his credit. He is one of the NZSA’s longest serving members since the 1970s and was Honorary President in 2022-2023. He lives in Auckland.
Te Po-tahuri-mai-ki-taiao
Ki te Whai ao
Ki te Ao marama
Tihei mauri ora