This last weekend the Tuwhare Trust was invited by the University of Otago to help celebrate 60 years of the Robert Burns Fellowship. Hone was twice a Robert Burns Fellow at the University of Otago (1969 and 1974); he was also a Hocken Fellow at the University of Otago in 1983.
The celebrations started at the Otago University’s English Department with the launch of their Stair Poems by Hone Tuwhare and Ruth Dallas.
The Tuwhare Trust was also invited to speak at the “Tribute to Absent Fellows” presentation at Dunedin Public Art Gallery with Rob Tuwhare and Jeanette Wikaira representing Hone Tuwhare. Moving tributes and readings celebrated the lives and writing of seventeen poets and authors. Reading a tribute to Hone Tuwhare, Rob read “Friend” and Jeanette read “Sea Call/Te Karanga a Tangaroa” in the Te Reo Maori version translated by Selwyn Murupaenga. It was a beautiful way to celebrate absent friends and was an emotionally charged afternoon.
Nga mihi mahana.
Photo Credits:
1. Hone Tuwhare’s Burns Fellow photograph in the University of Otago’s Central Library.
2. Hone Tuwhare’s “Hotere” poem on the stairs of the English Department, University of Otago.
3. Rob Tuwhare playing ‘Friend’.
4. Jeanette Wikaira and Rob Tuwhare with Victor Dibble and Sheldon Dibble at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery after the Tribute to Absent Fellows presentation.
