On Thursday 29 October | 5:30 PM — 6:30 PM Jeanette Wikaira, Chair of the Tuwhare Trust will give a talk at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery about the journey of restoring the Tuwhare Crib at Kaka Point.
Hone Tuwhare (Ngapuhi, Ngati Korokoro, Ngati Tautahi, Te Popoto, Te Uri o Hau) is widely regarded as one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most accomplished and treasured poets. Passionate about human rights, and in particular about Maori rights, in the 1970s he was an organiser for the first Maori writers and artists hui at Te Kaha and marched in the Maori Land March in 1975. Recipient of many national awards, In 2003 he was named one of New Zealand’s 10 greatest living artists and received the inaugural Prime Ministers’ Award for Literary Achievement.
Jeanette Wikaira, Chair of the Hone Tuwhare Charitable Trust, will talk about the restoration of Tuwhare’s crib at Kaka Point and the Trust’s hopes in developing the new writers’ and artists’ residency celebrating the ‘people’s poet’ Hone Tuwhare (1922–2008).
Image Credit: Hone Tuwhare outside his crib at Kaka Point. Photo courtesy of the Otago DailyTimes.
For Hone’s 98th birthday, staff at the Hocken Collections have curated an intimate little hari huri tau exhibition. The exhibition is in the foyer of the Hocken, you can listen to Hone reading his poems from No Ordinary Sun, and see his many beautiful, published works on display until Saturday 7 November. Thank you, Hocken Collections!
If you want to get in touch with the Hone Tuwhare Trust, please email tuwharetrust@gmail.com
All copyright and publishing rights for Hone Tuwhare poems are held by Rob Tuwhare on behalf of the Estate of Hone Tuwhare. For permission to reprint, perform, or display Hone’s work please email HoneTuwharePoetry@gmail.com
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.
Tuwhare Trustee Stan Scott was on location in the South Island with presenter George Clark last week. The star of Restoration Man and George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces is in New Zealand filming an online series with Mitre 10 about New Zealanders getting creative in living spaces with a can-do kiwi attitude. Tuwhare Trustees Stan Scott and Rob Tuwhare took George to visit Hone’s crib in Kaka Point.
Clark was blown away by his visit to Hone’s crib saying, ‘It’s incredible that Hone wrote so many amazing poems in a tiny space, you can tell he was anchored to the landscape in his writings, inspired by being close to the sea and seeing the starts at night. Hone’s crib makes you realise that small space projects aren’t just about the architecture or the building.’ Clark recited Hone Tuwhare poetry at the crib, saying it was a highlight of his time in the South Island.
Clark is in Aotearoa, filming stories about Kiwis doing amazing things in small spaces. His stories will be shown on Mitre 10’s online TV channel. Mitre 10 is partnering with the Hone Tuwhare Charitable Trust in the restoration of Hone’s crib at Kaka Point.
