Heritage et AL

Blame it on the rain by Hana Pera Aoake Carin Smeaton : Kia ora Hana, You’ve been a busy mama! I’ve just finished reading your gorgeous little pocket-sized pukapuka 'Blame It On the Rain' and now I’m reading your third (and latest) 'Some Helpful Models of Grief.' I love the philosophies that you weave through your writings with the humour and socio historical threads that we writers from this part of the world tend to shy away from. I love that you don’t sanitise things and I love reading books that embrace that edge. Could you please let us Aucklanders know where you’re from and your connections to Tāmaki Makaurau?  Some helpful models of grief by Hana Pera Aoake Hana Pera Aoake : He uri tenei nō Ngāti Mahuta, Ngāti Hinerangi, Waikato/Tainui, Te Arawa, me Poutini Ngāi Tahu. Kei te noho au ki Kawerau. I tipu ake au Ōtepoti me Te whenua Moemoea. Ko Aoake tōku whanau. Ko Miriama Jean taku Tamāhine. Ko Hana Pera Aoake toku ingoa.  Kia ora, my name is Hana. I'm from a...

Image: Books of Mana: 180 Māori authored books of significance He kaimahi from Auckland Libraries interviews Dr. Spencer Lilley on  Books of Mana Rin: E te rangatira, Tena koe. Thankyou so much Spencer for joining us here to chat. As you already probably know, I loved your classes at Te Herenga Waka. It was so cool learning about some of the amazing taonga here at Auckland Libraries to assist with whakapapa, tikanga Māori, Reo Rangatira and Waka histories. So it was great coming across your chapter while perusing through this beautiful new pukapuka  - Books of Mana (Otago University Press 2025). Can you please tell us how did you happen to contribute to this pukapuka?  Spencer: I was invited to participate by the editors about five years ago, after they had published the list of books.  They had received a grant from Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga to produce the book and sent out invitations to people who they thought would have something to contribute. Luckily, one of th...

Mana Publications produced collections of creative writings by Tangata Moana and Tangata Whenua from 1974. It was led and founded by Marjorie Crocombe who also ran the South Pacific University’s extension centre in Suva, Fiji. As a branch of the South Pacific Creative Arts Society, Mana was set up to support and publish South Pacific writers in a time when the Pacific was being too often misrepresented by writers with a colonial or European lens. It was time to nurture and prioritise Moana voices. From here, Mana grew into the publishing strong arm of the South Pacific.  The language and literature journal Mana Review: a South Pacific journal of Language and Literature soon followed in 1976 as a supplement to the collections. Mana Review’s first editor, Subramani, said the journal was intended as a platform to discuss Moana literature and criticisms and review in a backdrop of colonisation of which writers were drawing. The following year, Mana Review’s kaupapa shifted slightly to...

Recently at Auckland Central Library Research Centre, we’ve been celebrating contemporary wāhine Māori writers of innovative fiction - creative fiction which shapeshifts in form and genre with the power and flow of atua wāhine. We want our Indigenous collections to be embraced in a space dedicated to and curated by the author. We began with Talia Marshall’s pukapuka Whaea Blue. This time we’re showcasing the magical and healing hit of auto composite fiction, Kōhine, by Colleen Maria Lenihan. Similar to Whaea Blue, Kōhine defies genre, time and space and takes you on an enlightened yet haunting journey into the spiritual realm and back, through narrative twists and turns of memoir, poetry, and interconnected short fiction.  The following kaupapa is an interview with Colleen on Kōhine :  Rin Smeaton: Kia ora to you Colleen. Our mutual hoa Talia suggested that I talk to you! First of all, I wanted you to know that my co-worker Ash read Kōhine when it first got published and cou...

  Aunty Bea is a legend. Piatarihi Beatrice (Bea) Tui Yates, Te Arawa, Tainui, Ngāti Rangiwewehi, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāti Uenuku Kōpako, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Awa (AKA Aunty Bea) is one of the most gifted, clever and exceptional kaituhi Māori around. She was a force in the advocacy of human rights and Indigenous rights. Along with wāhine toa, like Toi Te Rito Maihi, Katarina Mataira, and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Aunty Bea lead the te reo Māori revival renaissance from the 70s and 80s. As a vital figure in Māoridom, she supported the rise of the Kōhanga Reo movement  through her exceptional creative spirit, and her knowledge of te reo Māori, and pūrākau, particularly that of Te Arawa.  Image: ' Hera and her Kuri ' by Piatarihi Yates She is well known in Aotearoa for writing bilingual books and Māori readers for local schools and Kohanga reo. Her books, including the readers, were and still are used in kura and kōhanga reo to support the revitalisation of our Indig...