Tautai is proud to support the Auckland Writers Festival 2021
Auckland Writers Festival Curator: Pasfika Gina Cole has curated three sessions for the Talanoa Series, featuring some of Aotearoa’s pre-eminent Pasifika writers, poets and playwrights. Other sessions include crafted responses from invited writers to Tautai’s exhibition SALTWATER / Interconnectivity.
Find more info about the sessions below.
All sessions are free with no ticket required.

PASIFIKA MARAMA QAQA:
AVIA, MARSH, MILA
Friday 14th May 2021 | 12:30 – 1:30pm | Limelight Room
Oceanic women have always been creators – weaving lives into pandanus mats, printing knowledge onto masi and tapa, bearing tatau memory on skin, weaving words in boundless talanoa. A triumph of preeminent Pasifika women – Ockham NZ Book Awards shortlisted Tusiata Avia (The Savage Coloniser Book), Selina Tusitala Marsh (Mophead Tu) and Ockham longlisted Karlo Mila (Goddess Muscle) – come together to discuss the preoccupations that infuse their incredible new books. Grace Iwashita-Taylor leads this conversation on whakapapa, culture and Te-Moana-nui-a-Kiwa as its threaded through their pages.
Talu mei tuai ‘a e nima mea‘a ‘a e kakai fefine ‘o e ‘Ōseni Pasifikí – ‘I he‘enau lālanga ‘o e mo‘uí ki ha ngaahi fala lou‘akau, tā ‘a e kupesi ‘o e ‘iló ki he masí mo e ngatú, hilifaki ‘i he kilí ha ngaahi tātatau ‘o e manatú, lālanga ‘o e ngaahi leá ki ha talanoa tuputupu‘a. Ko ha ikuna ‘eni ma‘á e kakai fefine ‘iloa ‘o e Pasifikí – ‘oku fakatahataha mai ai ‘a Tusiata Avia (The Savage Coloniser Book), Selina Tusitala Marsh (Mophead Tu) pea mo Karlo Mila (Goddess Muscle) – ke talatalanoa‘i ‘a e ngaahi fakalaulaulotoa ‘oku tuifio atu ‘i he‘enau ngaahi tohi laulōtaha fo‘oú. ‘Oku tataki ‘e Grace Iwashita-Taylor ‘a e talanoá ni fekau‘aki mo e whakapapa, ngaahi ‘ulungāanga fakafonuá mo e Te-Moana-nui-a-Kiwa ‘o hangē ko ia kuo filohi atu ‘i he ngaahi peesi ‘o ‘enau fa‘u tohí.

SALTWATER PEOPLE
Friday 14th May | 3:30 – 4:30pm | Herald Theatre
“We sweat and cry salt water, so we know that the ocean is really in our blood,” said the late scholar, poet and activist Teresia Teaiwa. These evocative words became a reference point for Tautai Gallery’s recent exhibition SALTWATER/ Interconnectivity in which the gallery was transformed by co-curators Katharine Losi and Giles Peterson to embody the Moana worldview – exploring questions of justice, equity and identity. Losi is joined by three other invited writers – Amber Esau, Rosanna Raymond and Jaimie Waititi – to craft written responses to the exhibition, which they present for the first time.

HOLDING THE TOKOTOKO: EGGLETON & MARSH
SAP SE ʻḀI TOK HE TA : EGGLETON MA MARSH
Saturday 15th May 2021 | 12:30 – 1:30pm | Wāitakere Room
What is the job of a Poet Laureate, and is it more complicated for those that “walk in and out of several worlds each day” as the United States’ Laureate of Native American descent Joy Harjo so eloquently puts it? Aotearoa’s first Pasifika Poet Laureate, Selina Tusitala Marsh, joins the current and second Pasifika writer to hold the tokotoko, David Eggleton, for a discussion on poetry and power, private and public writing, and his new collection The Wilder Years.
Ka tes ta garue ʻon famorit ne sap se fuḁg teʻis Poet Laureate ka te ka la noanoa seʻ se iris ne ʻmåürʻåk ʻe ta kḁinag måür tūtū his ʻe teʻ ne terḁniʻ – teʻis fäeag ʻon Joy Harjo, leʻet ʻe tör ʻon kakḁi mumuḁ ne Mereke ne pō tapeʻ ma ʻe fuḁg teʻis United States Laureate.
Leʻ Pasefiḁk mumuet ne pō ʻe fuḁg teʻis Poet Laureate ʻe Niu Sirḁgi Selina Tusitala Marsh, la teagʻesea ma leʻet ne teʻis sap se fuḁg ta ʻe ʻon ʻi heteʻ, ka täe ʻon ruḁ ne leʻet ʻe famör Pasefika ne sap se fuḁg teʻis, David Eggleton, la hḁifäegag ʻe rēko ʻamnåk teʻis “poetry and power”, fåʻ tē ne hünʻåk se ʻot mḁuri ne fåʻ ʻe rēko måür ofrḁu, ma la iofʻåk tapeʻ ma se ʻon garue foʻou teʻis The Wilder Years.

FALE AITU: KIGHTLEY & RODGERS
Sunday, 16th May | 2:00pm – 3:00pm | Wāitakere Room
Many ancestral currents, past and present, carried Pasifika peoples from Te-Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa to Aotearoa. Whilst each Pacific identity is unique, experiences of migration, colonialism, and courage are shared, and vividly expressed in a thriving performance scene. Pasifika playwrights Oscar Kightley and Victor Rodger are just two of the many whose work reflect the Pasifika migrant spirit and the relationships with Māori as tangata whenua. How are the multiple waka of Pasifika theatre navigating current global storms, and what does the future hold? They share their thoughts with Lana Lopesi.
O le tele o folauga i vaitaimi ua tuanai e oo mai i le asō, na folau mai ai tagata Pasifika mai le Te-Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa seia taunuu mai i Aotearoa. E tofu lava atumotu o le Pasifika ma lona faasinomaga, ma e ui i le eseese o nei faasinomaga, o talaaga i femalagaiga, faiga faakolone, ma le loto toa o tagata Pasifika, ua mafai ona faasoa ma faamatala manino i se faaaliga maoa‘e ma matagofie. O tusitala i faaaliga faa- Pasifika, le susuga Oscar Kightley ma Victor Rodger o nisi o tomai mai le toatele o tusitala, ma o loo atagia i a la galuega le agaga o tagata folau mai le Pasifika ma le sootaga ma Māori o tagata o le laueleele. O faapefea i le tele o sā o le Pasifika ona faatautaia folauga i matagi malolosi i le taimi nei, ma o le ā se taunuuga o loo agai atu i ai i le lumanai? Na faasoa o la manatu ma Lana Lopesi.

For more information head to the writersfestival.co.nz
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