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Hone Tuwhare and Ralph Hotere were good friends; their independent artistic careers united by a shared concern for human rights and injustice.  There was a mutual respect and moments of cross-pollination between the work of each. Hotere drew on Tuwhare’s poems in several of his paintings, also contributing cover designs for a number of Tuwhare’s volumes of poetry.  In 1970 Tuwhare released the book Come Rain Hail, which included the poem Hotere – a reflection on art, friendship, time and space. In November 2020 the Dunedin Public Art Gallery opened the exhibition RALPH HOTERE: ATETE (to resist) and published the poem Hotere on the Gallery’s BIG WALL

Tuwhare Trustees Rob Tuwhare and Jeanette Wikaira attended the exhibition opening, it was a very special evening and a breathtaking exhibition.

Photo: Hone Tuwhare and Ralph Hotere. Photograph by Gil Hanly. Private Collection.

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.