Te Ao Mārama ~ Mana Wāhine
Back in 1982, Witi Ihimaera and D.S. Long edited 'Into the World of Light – an anthology of Māori literature written in English' . Up till then, not many Māori writers had been published in reo Pākehā. It was not because there were too few kaituhi Māori writing in English. There were many. It was more due to the racist gate-keeping of the New Zealand literary canon. This sort of bias particularly affected wāhine Māori. Mana wāhine were creating revolutionary and critical works yet these works were not acknowledged in the pākehā world. Vernice Wineera was the first Wāhine Māori poet to publish a poetry collection in English in 1978. Her collection 'Mahanga: Pacific Poems' was published by The Institute for Polynesian Studies, Brigham Young University, Hawaii. Image: Cover of Te Ao Mārama, vol. 4. A rainbow of Indigenous creative works exists at Auckland Libraries but lots of this is hidden. The kaupapa of Te Ao Mārama ~ Mana Wāhine is to showcase these radiant works.