“If you don’t have the repertoire, you’re just gonna sing Pokarekare Ana over and over.” — Kawiti Waetford, opera singer and Māori lead at NZ Opera.
“Part of being a great parent is being a great partner. Everything in your life will go better if the mother of your children is happy, well, and well supported.” — TikTok star Louis Davis, in an extract from his new book, ‘The Modern Dad’.
“In that moment with my son, I was standing on the edge of a line that must not be crossed. But so many other Māori men have crossed it.” — Tīhema Baker, author of ‘One Day a Taniwha’.
“That was one of the hardest things about Wī entering our lives. I’d had Āniwa all to myself for years. My rock, my person. Now she was someone else’s.” — Tīhema Baker from his new book ‘One Day a Taniwha’.
Director Nī Dekkers-Reihana, 33, has reimagined the celebrated British play ‘Constellations’ for Aotearoa, setting it among the stars of Matariki.
“When the war ended, bombs were dumped or buried, and the troops walked away. For more than 80 years, Solomon Islanders have lived in fear that the ground might explode beneath them.” — Atakohu Middleton on a new documentary 'The War Below' that looks at how the Second World War is still destroying lives in the Solomons.
“The spoken word is where I feel the poetry lives. Publishing it in a book was far scarier for me than speaking it on a stage in front of people.” — Nafanua Purcell Kersel, who won the poetry prize at this year’s Ockham’s for her first book, ‘Black Sugarcane’.
’Waenga’ is very much a family affair. It was written by Hariata Moriarty, 25, and her brother Tamati, 23, who also star in the play. Dad, Jim Moriarty, is directing the play, and mum, Helen Pearse-Otene, is the dramaturge, providing guidance on the story. — Atakohu Middleton.
“There are assumptions to challenge, expectations to discard, insights to glean, blunders to commit, offences to give and grace to receive. All of this is part of the business of being a halfway good doctor in a largely Māori community.” — Dr Clare Ward.
“The only chance he had to hold on to his life lay somewhere else. Somewhere with an operating theatre, a table, a surgeon leaning over him.” — Dr Clare Ward, in an extract from her memoir, ‘A Place to Stand: A country doctor’s life’.
“With time, Vela has gained perspective and written his way to peace. And while he’ll never know what drove his father’s violence, he has found compassion for him.” — Atakohu Middleton on Vela Manusaute, writer and co-director of ‘Sons of Vao’.
“I’ve never seen a more community-minded comedian. That’s partly why his shows used to run long. He wanted the audience to get their money’s worth.” — James Nokise on fellow comedian and friend Tofiga Fepulea‘i winning New Zealand comedy’s largest award, the Topp Prize.
“There were moments of complete exhaustion and self-doubt, and many lessons in balancing her dream with responsibility.” — Atakohu Middleton on aspiring young filmmaker Veisinia Moalapau‘u.
“I tell audiences that I'm Māori, right out of the gate, because in Wellington people can be noticeably afraid to laugh. Even about things that are very mild, or jokes about my experience, because they're worried about offending people.” — Kipling DC, 2026 nominee for the Billy T Award.
“Rikihana thought his life had been going downhill ever since he’d first gone to prison. On his first lag, he saw someone stabbed up in his cell. That was when he realised prison was serious.” — An extract from ‘The Valley’, by Asher Emanuel.
“Literary spaces have largely been Pākehā, but things are shifting, and to me, literature and storytelling are deeply connected to the wider work of decolonising and indigenising our spaces.” — Shilo Kino.
“Dame Anne Salmond describes him as an anthropologist, as much as Sir Joseph Banks had been on Cook’s expeditions. Te Pahi wanted to get into the heads, to see into the souls, of these people.” — Eugene Bingham in an extract from 'The Chief and the Empire'.
“I'm a Hollywood actor now, and I’ve been successful because I’m unapologetically Southside.” — Actor Beulah Koale, on his Ōtara upbringing.
“He is a legend. He will always remain in our hearts and in my family’s memory.” — Nizar Chhoubi, on the man who saved his grandfather and family 83 years ago, Lance Sergeant Haane Manahi.
“Music has a unique and positive effect on our brains and bodies: it releases the bonding hormone oxytocin and feel-good endorphins. Music also increases neuroplasticity, the brain's capacity to learn throughout life.” — Atakohu Middleton.
Arts “revolutions aren’t made at the Met, they’re made on marae and in towns like Te Kaha by people driven by a love of reo, whenua and whakapapa.” — Jamie Tahana, who produced the podcast series ‘Pūtātara: Revolutions in Māori Art’.
“Tīpene has such a rich history and legacy, and many of the old boys were upset when it closed in 2000. Its closure had left an unfinished chapter in the school’s story.” — Kimiora Kaire-Melbourne, director of the documentary ‘Tīpene – A Legacy Reborn’.
“I would try hard to find jobs that ensured I’d have people around me who spoke te reo and encouraged it. I've been very deliberate and intentional about that.” — Hone Hurihanganui, teacher and composer of waiata and haka.
“Now that I'm inside the belly of the beast, I can see that there's a lot of goodwill, but there's also a lot of anxiety.” — Dr Safua Akeli on her work at a German museum grappling its colonial history.
“Whatever my original idea was for the book, it didn’t stand a chance against the spiritual thirst I had for kawakawa green to spill across my life and work, which was the desire to respond to the deaths and violence of Auē.” — Becky Manawatu on writing Kataraina.
“For many, he is the face of Tūhoe, of resistance, of the resurgence of te reo, of the return of mataora.” — Eugene Bingham on Tāme Iti’s memoir, 'Mana'.
“People don't understand that we're so far behind in representation on film. My parents had never heard ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i on film. My grandparents had never heard it.” — Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett, co-creator of ‘Chief of War’.
“What I love about this kaupapa is bridging that gap between our community members, especially our youth, and the professional setting of the opera.” — Stacey Leilua, creative producer of NZ Opera’s ‘The Monster in the Maze’.
“Throughout colonisation, throughout everything that's happening still today, we can draw strength from our art.” — Professor Ngarino Ellis, art historian and co-author of 'Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art'.
“Much of Mina McKenzie’s legacy is intangible. It exists in the way museums today work to keep taonga warm — by connecting with tangata whenua, and understanding that communities are as important as collections.” — Tanja Rother.
“For me, it wouldn’t make sense to write a story of two Māori cousins in a beat-up car roaming through this country without talking about all these different monuments to the colonial takeover of this land.” — Michelle Rahurahu on her Ockham-winning novel ‘Poorhara’.
“We did one tourist show every second week at a hotel restaurant, and the income went to the church. If our main tutor was away, I was the announcer with my snooty voice, which the tourists loved and remarked on.” — Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku in her Ockham-winning memoir 'Hine Toa'.
We have three double passes to give away to kaupapa Māori and Pasifika sessions at the Auckland Writers Festival this Friday and Saturday.
“The idea that something is ‘music’ is a western idea. Music as something that exists on its own without history, or music without story, or music without whakapapa, didn't happen for us.” — Robert Wiremu on Māori music.
“Shrek has been dubbed into more than 40 languages. There have been four sequels. But this is the first time any of the American studio's films have been adapted into an Indigenous language.” — Tainui Stephens, director of 'Shrek – Kātahi Te Korokē!'
“I see the curatorial process as an art practice. I don't get to make my own work very often. And I don't like the idea that I'm taking up space that could go to somebody who’s working full time on their toi.” — Karl Chitham.
“One of the compelling themes that emerges in Toi Te Mana is that art objects are not just physical but spiritual entities, embedded as they are in whakapapa, possessing a life force and spirit that endures through time.” — Kennedy Warne.
"There is little or no information recording where the taonga came from, who they belonged to, who made them, what their names were, or how they were used.” — Matariki Williams on how the majority of taonga stored in collections have been separated from their stories.
“Contemporary Māori stories don’t exist somewhere outside the context of ‘New Zealand’. Regardless of who you are, there is a sliver of yourself to be reflected back in our writing.” — Damien Levi on the multitude of Māori voices at Verb this year.
‘Echoes from Hawaiki’ shows that “the voices of taonga pūoro echo the even more ancient musical traditions of northerly islands, and carry faint memories and distant songs of farewell.”
“It’s filled from cover to cover with the version of te reo Māori that my cousins and I speak in the kitchen while we’re washing dishes. The words, the sentence structures, the expressions, the adulterated versions of famous whakataukī, and the jokes.” — Airana Ngarewa on his new book Ngāti Pātea.
“The legacy of Kōanga Festival is its unwavering support for Māori storytelling by creating a safe space and wraparound support during their annual playwrighting workshops.” — Playwright Aroha Awarau.
“I wanted to show what colonisation is like today, because a lot of people seem to think of it as a one-time historical event. But it's actually an ongoing process that has seeped into our everyday lives — and this applies whether you’re Māori or not.” — Shilo Kino on her new novel All That We Know.
“I think we have to find ways to connect with our higher selves, our better selves, and our love for our people and each other. And for me, that happens through literature, through stories.” — Tina Makereti.
“A Maōri photograph is not a pretty picture to be sold to a tourist. It’s about the whakapapa and the mana of what’s in the picture.” — Tom Roa on his photography project with Rodrigo Hill.
“It was scary stuff to walk in those shoes. I just don't think we have anywhere near the gifts and the special powers that our tūpuna had.” — Temuera Morrison, on playing his tupuna Rewi Maniapoto in the film Ka Whawhai Tonu (Struggle Without End).
“My mum is an awesome singer, and my sisters would sing as a trio. And when I was younger, I used to stand behind them and hum along, but I would always be flat. I would always be told to shush.” — Lyric tenor Manase Latu who starred in New Zealand Opera’s production of Le comte Ory.
“I have a lot of empathy for me as a kid. For this little Māori kid who didn't know they were Māori.” — Stacey Teague, poet and publisher, on dedicating her book ‘Plastic’ to herself.
“How could I have forgotten the harakeke flowers? I had looked at them every summer, my whole life. But I hadn’t remembered them at all.” — Lauren Keenan.
“In Tokelau, in the 1860s, those responsible were Peruvian. Their slave ships came to our atolls and took most of our able-bodied men, as well as some women and children. Virtually half of our people were taken.” — Artist Moses Viliamu on blackbirding.
“My wero is, if you want to bring folks together and magic them to feel something, anything, at a time where the government is tūtae-ing on our heads, maybe write a play about it?” — Dr Nicola Hyland.
“When Government policy is enforcing an intensified focus on marketability as the primary criterion for arts funding, it is worth reviving a different kind of theatre.” — Barry King.
“It is artists, and specifically Māori and other Indigenous artists, who have prompted me to always consider how I am as a visitor on other whenua, and how I must understand the impact of visitors and foreigners in the same way that I would for people to our whenua.” — Curator Matariki Williams.
“Art, music, poetry — that's how Indigenous people fight back. We don't have weapons. We don't want weapons. We have a voice. We have creativity. We have brightness and talent.” — Maungarongo Te Kawa.
“Some people in cities have historical amnesia. They forget that Māori didn’t just move to cities after they were built. We were here before their cities. We were pushed out. Our homes became their cities.” — Debbie Broughton, Te Aro Pā poet.
“The whakaaro I share so staunchly in everything I do is: ‘You are enough. You're enough as you are, with what you have right now.’ Our stories and mātauranga tell us that.” — Qiane Matata-Sipu.
“It’s so important for me to step outside my private, comfortable life and say 'Toitū Te Tiriti' any time I have a public chance to do that. It’s really the bare minimum I can do.” — Novelist Pip Adam.
“When I started Anahera Press, there were a lot of Māori and Pasifika poets around, but they just weren't being published. The reason certainly wasn't anything to do with quality. It was because mainstream publishers didn’t want our kind of writing.” — Kiri Piahana-Wong, poet and publisher.
“After Talia passed, I started writing again. I realised I write because I have to, because it’s all I can do in those circumstances.” — Isla Huia, on her debut poetry collection, named after her best friend.
“I've always loved paying homage to the past. And that’s happened with my music as well. I suppose it's the whole concept of bringing the village with me, bringing my whakapapa into my present-day music.” — Dr Andrew Faleatua.
“I’m a person who always wanted to write a novel about Te Ātiawa history, but still let herself be convinced to write about 1940 London instead.” — Lauren Keenan.
“We’re committed to opening the stage to exciting and confronting kōrero from Māori creators, thinkers and change-makers with fires burning in their throats. Fires that burn even more urgently today.” — Michael and Matariki Bennett, co-curators Māori for the Auckland Writers Festival, May 14–19.
”Māori women's stories have been relegated to the margins of history. There are things that we don’t know about ourselves because the stories about who we are have been censored and omitted from the record.” — Dr Ngahuia Murphy.
“To show up in life, to be present, loving, unapologetically Māori and happy is a political statement. It pokes its tongue out at the expectations of others.” — Maungarongo Te Kawa.
“I could manufacture in China and mass produce and chase the money. But there are old kuia in those factories, and there’s nothing less Māori than having a kuia paid $4 a day to make your kākahu.” — Designer Kharl WiRepa.
The 1972 Aboriginal and Māori tent embassies in Canberra and Wellington “were created by frank and fearless young people sick of the status quo. They declared that the Indigenous tribes of these lands would no longer be aliens in their own country.” — Tainui Stephens.
“I distinctly remember hearing: “Hey, you know we don't do that stuff.” Meaning acting was only for Pākehā. So I was drawn to that side of things in secret.” — Te Kohe Tuhaka.
"I write for us. I want to see people on stage and screen who I recognise, who are our people, having complex, diverse, amazingly difficult, fantastic lives.” — Maraea Rakuraku.
“She was intimate with death, conversed with it sometimes, muttering away, defying, even threatening. How the hell do you threaten death? A frequent reminiscence of her childhood at Waahi Paa was, ‘Too many tangi, Son.’” — Ben Brown on his mum.
“My nan... had completely turned her back on being Māori. She was of the opinion that you just had to make it in the Pākehā world, and that speaking Māori and being Māori wasn’t going to get you anywhere in life.” — Stacy Gregg.
“I’m very inspired by what we, as a people, can and are achieving on a global scale — and not just in music.” — Moses Mackay, opera singer.
“There’s the satisfaction of taking a lump straight from the earth and making something that you can fire and use to eat or drink out of, rather than going to the Warehouse or buying something that's been made in China or wherever.” — Baye Riddell.
“Year after year, I wrote and performed and did the astonishing amount of admin it requires. And stayed broke. I perform at festivals and win awards and look fab in sparkling red dresses at the openings of my plays. And stay broke.” — Tusiata Avia.
The Pikihuia Awards are held every two years to celebrate excellence in Māori writing, both in reo Pākehā and reo Māori. This is the winning reo Māori essay in the non-fiction category, written by Zeb Tamihana Nicklin.
“In all its diversity, there is work by Māori that incorporates the Māori worldview. Also, there is work by Māori that does not. After all, there are many different ways of being Māori.” — Patricia Grace, at the Kupu Māori Writers Festival.
“Yes, we want people with in-depth mātauranga Māori writing about that knowledge. But we also want people who are struggling with their identity as Māori, or who have just come to it, because those are valid experiences in Aotearoa today.” — Robyn Bargh.
"Mōteatea were the storehouses of tribal and whānau memory and aspiration, drawn upon to nourish and feed the current and new generations, whilst ensuring they were equipped with the essential knowledge to help them navigate, understand, and explore their world." — Dr Hana O'Regan.
“Everyone I grew up with has story upon story like this — a sprinkling of farmers in Taranaki high as a kite on mistrust and suspicion, fiercely defending stolen land from the ones they stole it from.” — Airana Ngarewa on his new novel The Bone Tree.
“Coming up in the world of fashion, Kiri Nathan ran into brick walls at every turn, was told she wasn’t good enough, or her work was ‘too Māori’ to sell.” — Siena Yates.
“The Bone People is both a testament to this massive struggle against yourself ('You are nobody') and evidence that the struggle can be won. Hulme won.” — Rachel Buchanan.
“Aboriginal people, if they appear at all in the landscape, are presented as ornamental figures, framing devices, exotic touches. Only rarely is their humanity expressed . . . Mostly they are simply absent.” — Kennedy Warne on the erasure of Aboriginal people in colonial art.
“Enough of this burdensome, anxiety-producing, imposter syndrome we immigrants have felt the world over, meekly replying to aggressive shop assistants: ‘No, just looking thanks,’ as they follow us around stores.” — Loveni Enari on why he loves Some Are Always Hungry.
“I wanted to write something that puts Pākehā in the shoes of a colonised people. I want them to imagine a world in which their principles and values are routinely laughed at.” — Tīhema Baker, author of ‘Turncoat’, a satirical sci-fi novel.
“Lisa, and many of the characters in Inky Pinky Ponky are so close to my heart. Their moments and storylines, good and bad, are inspired by my own experiences, and also those of my trans sisters.” — Amanaki Prescott-Faletau.
“Perhaps one hundred years from now, every child born to Raukawa will know our oriori and be singing it as they grow. My hope is that it will feed the minds and hearts of our tamariki with their rich history.” — Paraone Gloyne.
“Compared with Pākehā, more Māori feel the arts are important for their wellbeing. Interestingly, art has more value for Māori who have less money, than for those who have hefty pūtea.” — Tainui Stephens.
“It was an experience I’ll never forget. I endured over 60 combined hours of physical and mental torture that threatened to tear my soul apart, let alone my skin.” — Pakilau Manase Lua, on getting a pe'a.
“The images represent an unusually careful and complex response to the difficult issues of history, politics, violence and memory.”
“Their plan was simply to show up at the students’ common room and ask them to take off the grass skirts. But the meeting became a confrontation and quickly blew up.” — Katie Wolfe, on the haka party incident.
“I truly came to believe that these taonga were asleep while they were in the swamp. The carvings embody so much mana, mauri and power from the old world that is just undiminished.” — Rachel Buchanan, on the Motunui epa.
“We know very well that Māori assertion and self-confidence frightens and angers some Pākehā. They're not used to Māori being in control. Rangatiratanga gives visibility to Māori decision-making.” — Tainui Stephens.
“Māori and Pasifika work has a range of barriers to overcome, and making them a strawman opponent for international Shakespeare fans just adds another.” — James Nokise.
“Making siapo is a traditional skill, and if new people don’t learn, then we lose that knowledge and artform. I know of only four other siapo artists.” — Jasmine Tuiā.
“One of the pervasive myths about Māori people (which we have taken to enthusiastically telling ourselves) is that ‘we don’t write’ despite literally millions of pages filled with words penned (or typed) by our own people — by ourselves.” — Professor Alice Te Punga Somerville.
“Te Matatini is one of those rare moments. It’s our opportunity to be completely and unashamedly Māori.” — Professor Linda Waimarie Nikora.
“Love is the final word of the film — a transcendent love of place and time, as much as of the heart and of each other.” — Tainui Stephens.
“Our most complex and important questions, theories, and ideas were shared and discussed by some of our greatest creators in te ao Māori.” — Chloe Fergusson-Tibble on Kupu, the Māori writers’ festival.
“They give us not only a glimpse into the customs, the language and beliefs of the time, but also an insight into our ancestors’ way of thinking and their emotions at the time of composing.” — Tenga Rangitauira.
“Imagine. A book about people like me, and other people wanting to read about us. It showed me we were good enough already, worthy of success and happiness and love.” — Maria Samuela.
“As immersive and moving as the film is, the book has depths and insights that can’t be accessed on screen.” — Kennedy Warne.
The Māori intellectual tradition “has always been a daring, as well as imaginative, tradition propelled by both a longing to explore and the confidence that has come from the stories told in this land.” — Moana Jackson.
“Pacific singing is very personal because it’s the way we pass on our culture, so we bring a different range of emotions to the operatic world.” — Pene Pati of Sol3Mio.
“Over the past five years, Ngā Pakiaka has given 3,000 rangatahi, here and overseas, a taste of filmmaking. With the expert guidance of Māoriland’s producers, they’ve handled the planning, funding, and delivery of their work.” — Tainui Stephens.
“They never put me higher than second in the end-of-year tests. I suppose it would not have done to have this little dark kid, whose mother was Māori and whose father had shot himself, be placed first.” — Renée.
In celebration of National Poetry Day this Friday, here's a poem from Tusiata Avia, Arts Foundation laureate and winner of the poetry award at this year's NZ book awards.
“I can’t watch the show without cringing at the risque subject matter. Auē. But if they made the show based on my sensibilities, there would be ZERO rangatahi watching it.” — Quinton Hita on the bilingual drama series Ahikāroa.
“Sometimes we need to challenge the status quo and put forward our ideas so that we can shift the ground.” — Nigel Borell.
“A man stood up and said: ‘I thought this was the group to come to when you want to be racist.’ And then he left. I’m still hoping that was part of the show.” — Emmaline Pickering-Martin on 'Racists Anonymous'.
“He looked more Pākeha than any Pākehā I knew . . . But his was a life deeply immersed in te ao Māori. He was one of the best taonga puoro players in the world. A leading force behind their revival.” — Moana Maniapoto on Richard Nunns.
“It is the people who offer us the material and inspiration for our stories . . . The people are the ultimate sovereign power. Story sovereignty belongs with the people we serve.” — Tainui Stephens.
Visiting Toi Tū Toi Ora, Auckland Art Gallery’s exhibition of contemporary Māori art, is like being invited to a wānanga in cosmology and culture, writes Kennedy Warne.
“Weaving is my way of connecting my past and present with my future — that is, with my children and my mokopuna.” — Veranoa Hetet.
“I think what contemporary Pacific art tells us is what the truth of our reality is.” —artist-curator Ema Tavola.
“We define ourselves by the stories we choose to tell about ourselves. When we make films for our own people, it’s not just about the art of it, nor the business of it. We are testing the empowering potential of film.” — Tainui Stephens.
"She’d been late home and had been sent into the bathroom to bare her bottom for the cane. After the caning she’d peed, so the stick had come hitting down again For, Being, A, Dirty, Girl, Now, Clean, Up, This, Mess." — From 'Cousins', by Patricia Grace.
“My parents delivered some very intriguing one-liners which fired the imagination, such as: 'You know, you had an uncle who rode on a whale.'" — Patricia Grace.
“New Zealanders are fiercely reticent. They don’t want to stand out, whereas in America they just go: ‘Wow.’” — Jemaine Clement on New Zealand audiences.
“The legacy of Dawn Raid Entertainment serves as a timely reminder that our ambition mustn't get lost in the allure of money and fame.” — Litia Tuiburelevu.
“We grew up proud of being Māori, proud of Ngāi Tuhoe and of our tīpuna.” — Tim Worrall.
"There are very few who’ll understand how it feels to know that you’ve built this vessel that’s gone across the ocean and that’s delivered your people safely to their destination." — James Eruera, master waka carver.
“In filmmaking, the essence is collaboration. For something to be really good, there needs to be different perspectives, techniques and skills from lots of different people.”
“There are lots of silly excuses that people offer for why there aren’t more of us published. They say, for instance, that we don’t like to write. We aren’t storytellers. We’re not readers. But that’s ridiculous.”
“Everybody knows what it's like to be on a first date. Or have rude thoughts. And, as long as you're being honest, it can be funny.” — Kura Forrester, Billy T award winner.
“It's okay to be a bad writer in your first draft because a lot of the craft of writing is in the rewriting.”
“I always used to think that the work we were doing was adding another brick to the wall — the wall of rangatiratanga.”—Robyn Bargh, founder of Huia Publishers.
"I was so lucky to grow up with my 23 cousins. We all liked to joke around. I was used to banter and coming back with one-liners. And being a smartarse."
Comedian James Nokise, an Edinburgh Fringe festival veteran of seven years, on why Rose Matafeo winning the Edinburgh Comedy Award last week is a very big deal.
“People have come in for the haka boogie, and when they stay for a while, we can see them becoming empowered to take on fulfilling roles.”
Four plays in four languages staged over four weeks — a theatre experiment which aims to challenge the idea of English as the “mainstream” language and all other languages as exotic.
"It’s not enough for Pākehā readers and publishers to 'love' Pasifika or Māori or 'other' writers, while barely giving them space in print."
Being original and unique is an enormous reason that Black Grace is still here. We don't copy what happens in Europe or anywhere else.
“We were constantly finding ourselves among the firsts. It was scary because there wasn't enough work for us — and we had such a little voice in the industry.”
“When I was at school, I already knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to dance. But people would laugh under their breath when I told them because, in their opinion, it wasn’t a ‘realistic career’.”
James Nokise comes from a family with more than a few church ministers — his dad and grandfather...
When we first met Beulah Koale in 2014, he told us he was going to be the Samoan Cliff Curtis. The...
Six weeks ago, I did a poetry reading in Auckland. It was on National Poetry Day and I was in...
This piece by award-winning Taranaki writer Steph Matuku is one of five features celebrating Te...
This piece by Tusiata Avia, a poet, performer and writer, began as a talk presented at Conchus...
Kereama Taepa grew up with a foot in two worlds. As a kid, he didn’t really notice there...
Filipe Manu, a 24-year-old tenor from Auckland, beat off four Aussie singers to win the Australian...
It may be time you got to know Paula Morris — through her writing anyway. And there’s a good...
Over the last dozen years or so, you may have had a good few chuckles watching The Laughing...
This is an edited version of Tina Makereti’s University of Auckland Public Lecture: Poutokomanawa...
Selina Tusitala Marsh is a celebrated poet-scholar. She was the first PI to graduate with a PhD in...
Even before Miriama McDowell had emerged from the Toi Whakaari National Drama School in 2002, she...
Tusi Tamasese made quite a splash with his groundbreaking debut film The Orator — O Le Tulafale:...
Fran Kora is a versatile character. He’s been a star in theatre productions, and in a movie as...
Disney’s latest film, Moana, featuring its first Pacific Island princess, is being released in New...
The debates in Māori and Pasifika communities have heated up intensely (kind of like global...
Julian Wilcox pays tribute to a musical hero, Moana Maniapoto, on her induction into the New...
Moana Maniapoto has now been welcomed into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame. That puts her in...
Salā Lemi Ponifasio isn’t easily defined. He’s never had any formal training in dance or theatre....
Courtney Sina Meredith is driven, ambitious, articulate — and on a mission. Last week, the...
It’s not hard to see why Maisey Rika has such a loyal and growing following, not only in Aotearoa...
Back in the day, when “floor shows” were king, the pub crowds of South Auckland were ruthless. I...
I’ll admit that I’ve been a Māui fan-girl for a long time. What’s not to love about the...
Bill Sevesi helped define a musical genre: a Pacific sound that wasn’t Hawaiian or Tongan or...
Independent filmmaker Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa talks to Adrian Stevanon about his surprise...
Nina Nawalowalo is a Wellington theatre director with a reputation for making memorable pieces of...
As the heading indicates, Sima Urale is no longer a doongy. Not, you’d suspect, that she was ever...
E-Tangata is an online Sunday magazine specialising in stories that reflect the experiences of Māori and Pasifika in Aotearoa.
We welcome submissions or inquiries to:
editor@e-tangata.co.nz
Sign up for our email newsletter and get the latest E-Tangata stories sent straight to your inbox.
SubscribeYou can support E-Tangata’s kaupapa by contributing through PressPatron. With your help, we can tell more Māori and Pacific stories.
