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.