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 this year, the chair is Perena Quinlivan. 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. 

Upcoming Events

Ngā Pae Rewa Pū Kōrero – The Uprising of Storytelling Hui

Labour Weekend 2024, Te Awhina Marae, Motueka

Join fellow Māori writers to share knowledge, connect and uplift ngā kaituhi Māori. The weekend features 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)

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. 

New PD 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 will be taking a webworkshop on writing first-person and Robret Sullivan will be talking about poetry. These three sessions will become living artefacts that can feed many generations of writers. 

NZSA Kaituhi Māori Mentor Programme

The new Kaituhi Māori Mentor Programme gives 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.

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