Nga Korero Hohonu o te Awa — The Hone Tuwhare Poet­ry Series 2023, curat­ed by Jeanette Wikaira and Kit­ty Brown was launched in Octo­ber as part of the 2025 Dunedin Writ­ers and Read­ers Fes­ti­val. This col­lec­tion is vol­ume one of what will be a series of Tuwhare pub­li­ca­tions acknowl­edg­ing the lega­cy of Hone Tuwhare.   We are so proud of this col­lec­tion and thank­ful to the poets who agreed to par­tic­i­pate in both the 2023 Poet­ry Series and Nga Korero Hon­onu o te Awa. Thank you to local Dunedin small press, Manu Scripts for their beau­ti­ful work on pub­lish­ing this book and to Tracey Tawhiao for the lush art­work fea­tured on the cov­er and with­in the book.

The col­lec­tion fea­tures poet­ry by: Ati Teepa, Chris Tse, Cil­la McQueen, David Eggle­ton, Jes­si­ca Hin­eran­gi Thomp­son-Carr, liz bres­lin, Louise Wal­lace, Michaela Vyas, Sophia Wil­son and Tracey Tawhiao.

The book’s words of acknowl­edge­ment by Rob Tuwhare are repro­duced here:

Rob Tuwhare.

The book’s intro­duc­tion is repro­duced here:

Hone Tuwhare’s poet­ry is like a korero on the marae: part chal­lenge, part embrace, always alive, with the promise of a good feed after­wards. It’s poet­ry that fills you up. The 2023 Hone Tuwhare Poet­ry Series was poet­ry that filled you up. Hone would’ve loved it.

Nga korero hohonu o te awa — deep riv­er talk seemed an apt Hone-inspired name for this first-time poet­ry series deliv­ered at the Dunedin Writ­ers & Read­ers Fes­ti­val in Octo­ber 2023. Otak­ou Marae opened the fes­ti­val with the tipuna, Te Awa Otak­ou watch­ing on and deep riv­er talk came alive. At the marae ancient poet­ry flowed, koauau & karanga,whaikorero & waia­ta. Writ­ers spoke. Read­ers lis­tened. Hone smiled.

The world was shift­ing and the poets felt it. Israel had just invad­ed Gaza, Aus­tralia had vot­ed NO to Indige­nous voice and wasps took over a bee­hive in Poneke. The poets tapped a vein and the poet­ry series took on this moment of resis­tance. Hone  beamed with pride.

The poet lau­re­ates came. Cil­la McQueen (Hone’s favourite), David Eggle­ton and Chris Tse gave us their best toko­toko raised poet­ry. The inau­gur­al Tuwhare fel­lows came. Tracey Tawhiao and Ati Teepa brought poet­ry koha from their res­i­den­cies at Hone’s crib at Kaka Point. The pun­ters came. We made nation­al head­lines by rub­bing up against elec­tion night rules with a row­dy night of polit­i­cal poet­ry at Woof! Hone shout­ed shots of whiskey. The local poets came. liz bres­lin led the poet­ry whanau in a pass the par­cel poet­ry cel­e­bra­tion for Chris Tse’s birth­day and they gave us the word med­i­cine we all need­ed. Hone got the gui­tar out. Hone’s whanau came. Man­a­ia Tuwhare-Hoani showed us the pow­er of poet­ry per­formed, poet­ry that cours­es through her whaka­pa­pa. Hone cried tears of joy, and said…

On life’s eter­nal river

we float on … and

on, for­ev­er — like

a stream of light

enhanc­ing our under-

stand­ing of human love,

and life! Kia ora!

Jeanette Wikaira & Kit­ty Brown — Hone Tuwhare Poet­ry Series Curators.

Please get in touch to pur­chase copies of this beau­ti­ful book.

The Tuwhare Poet­ry Series invit­ed Emma Neale to be in con­ver­sa­tion with Lyn­ley Edmeades — we want­ed to acknowl­edge the for­mi­da­ble Emma Neale and her stun­ning new poet­ry book, that took out the Ock­hams 2025 Mary and Peter Big­gs Award for Poet­ry. Emma is a much-loved local Otepoti poet­ry leg­end and is known for her lyri­cal bril­liance and wry, inci­sive take on the every­day. This won­der­ful ses­sion was an inti­mate con­ver­sa­tion between two local lit­er­ary women, Emma and Lyn­ley (a Poet, Writer, Aca­d­e­m­ic her­self), explor­ing Emma’s extra­or­di­nary award-win­ning poet­ry col­lec­tion Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit. 

Thank you, Emma and Lyn­ley, what a priv­i­lege to have you both par­tic­i­pate in the 2025 Tuwhare Poet­ry Series.

Nga mihi korua.

Go tell your racist jokes to some­one else (a line from a Tuwhare poem) was an apt name for the Pub Poet­ry ses­sion as part of the Tuwhare Poet­ry Series 2025. This was not a qui­et night of polite verse! It was poet­ry for the peo­ple at the beloved local Otepoti bar, Woof! — where poet­ry got loud, polit­i­cal and unapolo­get­i­cal­ly raw. Inspired by Hone Tuwhare’s fire-start­ing line, this was a pow­er­ful night of rev­el­ry. Host­ed by Otepoti local, Aaron Hawkins. with an amaz­ing line up of dead­ly poets: Dominic Hoey, Ati Teepa, Sih­le Ntuli, Liz Bres­lin, Isla Huia, Jess Hin­eran­gi and Nafu­na Pur­cell Kersel. 

Thanks to the best bar in Aotearoa, WOOF! for host­ing our evening. And thanks to our part­ners, Dunedin Writ­ers and Read­ers Fes­ti­val, the best lit­er­ary fes­ti­val in Aotearoa.