Me he toroa e tau ana ki te au / Like the toroa resting on the current, five Kāi Tahu poets will land at Te Whanganui-a-Tara, bringing kupu from many places and gathering together.
Ruby Solly, Liam Jacobson, Josiah Morgan, Hinemoana Baker and Ada Duffy will tipi haere / roam about this whenua to reflect on and share their experiences as Kāi Tahu and takatāpui, and deepen connections with Te Upoko o Te Ika a Māui. The poets will talk across themes of being Kāi Tahu living in and outside of papakāika, queerness, memory, pūrākau, and shapeshifting.
The poetry will take place from 1-2pm, with performances by local dancers responding to artworks in the gallery happening at 12.30pm and 2pm.
Liam Jacobson (Kāi Tahu) is a writer and artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau. Liam has written and performed for galleries, pubs, theatres & alleys across Aotearoa and overseas. Liam's first book of poetry, Neither was published in 2023 by Dead Bird Books. Their second will be out in September-ish.
Dr Ruby Solly (Kāi Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe) is a writer, taonga pūoro practitioner, artist, and doctor of public health living in Pōneke. She has had two books of poetry published with Te Herenga Waka University Press. 'Tōku Pāpā' (2021) a meditation on how Kāi Tahu culture and whakapapa are handed down through father daughter relationships. As well as 'The Artist' (2023), a verse novel that tells the tale of our Southern iwi, and uses cave art as a lens to tell a multigenerational story of relationships with land and the marks we make upon it. As a musician and taonga pūoro player, Ruby has played with the likes of Trinity Roots, Whirimako Black, Marlon Williams, and Yo-yo Ma. But the work most important to her is having the privilege of using taonga pūoro with whānau, hapū and iwi, as they were intended. Ruby dedicated her doctoral thesis, 'He Hauora! He Hauoro! The Use of Taonga Pūoro in Hauora Māori' to this work, including a community activation at her marae, Waihao.
Josiah Morgan (He/Him/Ia, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Maniapoto) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Ōtautahi. His latest book i'm still growing is out with Dead Bird Books. His other books were all released in the United States, including his hybrid text The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was performed as a six-hour-long performance artwork in Auckland Pride 2024. He believes in magic and the power of words to transform.
Ada Duffy (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha, Pākehā, Indo-Fijian) is a kaituhi from Ōtepoti. They were a Starling micro-resident at the New Zealand Young Writers Festival in 2024. Ada's work is sustained by conversations with the whenua and can be found in PŪHIA and Starling.
Poet and performer Hinemoana Baker traces her ancestry from Ngāti Raukawa-ki-te-Tonga, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Te Āti Awa and Ngāi Tahu, and from England and Germany. Her four poetry collections, several original music albums and other sonic and written work have seen her on stages and pages in many countries around the world for the last 25 years. Her most recent poetry collection, 'Funkhaus' (THWUP 2021) was shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, and has been translated into German and Polish. In 2024 she returned from nine years in Berlin to spend six months as Randell Cottage Writer in Residence, living and writing at the historic homestead at the base of Te Ahumairangi in Te-Whanga-nui-a-Tara. In 2025 she is teaching Creative Writing at Massey University and writing towards a Creative Writing doctorate at IIML. She is also writing a new collection of poetry called 'Exhaust World', and slowly creating a practice as a facilitator of poetry experiences as a form of rongoā/repair.
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