What is the future for writers in Aotearoa? Becoming a full-time writer is the ultimate dream for many aspiring authors, but how does that dream translate into reality, and how receptive is New Zealand’s literary scene to newcomers? What does a career as a writer look like here in 2025 Aotearoa? And, with the shifting […]
Neil Gaiman has always been a big part of my love story. My husband, Lars, loves Gaiman’s work so, to fatally snare Lars in my trap soon after we’d met, I lined up at a Gaiman book event for three hours to get a book signed for him. At the time, I was in my early thirties […]
My sister has been on my mind, likely because next week it will be fifteen years since she passed away. A little context: I very rarely speak about her. It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and my friends and I were at Duck Island on Cuba Street in Wellington after dinner and […]
I closed my last blog with the famous words of Meri Ngāroto of Te Aupōuri: ‘He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata he tangata he tangata!’ I find myself ruminating on those words once again as I consider: this is my final official Te Papa Tupu blog post. Out of all the things I […]
Nā Mauao te karanga ki te hāpara moata. Me he pioke ahau ko Tauranga te moana. Me he manunui ahau ko Kaimai te kōhanga. Me he tuna ahau Ko Te Wairoa te kōawa eee. Chur, how’s it? I’m Te Kahupakea or Te Kahu or Matua Kahu or Kahu the poet or Suspkt the battle rapper, […]
I recently watched ‘Twilight: New Moon’, and stepping past all the hu-ha about it being a terrible film, blah blah blah, there was something I was struck by that resonated. When Edward leads Bella into the forest to tell her that he and his vampire family are leaving, she stumbles about in the forest for […]
Stop Giving the Baby to Rumplestiltskin: Artificial Intelligence and the Arts An opinion piece, complete with references and memes It’s inescapable, isn’t it? You don’t even have to be on the internet to see it around anymore. Signs of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ are everywhere around us these days, leaking off our screens and into ‘meatspace’. […]
Since I last blogged, the world has kind of imploded. Trump was elected. That three-word sentence punches my gut with every syllable. David Seymour has carried the Treaty Principles Bill to its first hearing. My words struggle in the shallow waters of my patience for this man and his twisted vision of what Aotearoa should […]
A couple of weeks ago I attended the first birthday party for Huia Short Stories 15 at Unity Books in Wellington, where my friend and fellow Te Papa Tupu writer Steph Julian was reading. It’s quite cool that we’re both published in the same pukapuka alongside our other Te Papa Tupu friend Anthony Pita, who […]
This is the second version of this blog post because today at the ātua wahine korero with Hana Tapiata I was inspired to relook at the purpose of my blog post and what I wanted to share, so I thought I would share some history that informs what I am writing. It is a little […]
