Writers gathered at the Te Whē ki Tukorehe wānanga, Tukorehe marae, in February 2020.
Sinead Overbye looks at how Māori writers are taking control of their own publication and distribution. There is a shift in the artistic landscape taking place, and with it different ways of publishing and distributing literature. I had the privilege of being involved with Te Rito o Te Harakeke in 2019. This publication brought Māori writers from across the world together to respond to the peaceful occupation of Ihumātao. Each poet had the right to refuse all editorial suggestions. The result was a hand-bound chapbook in which every word was exactly what writers wanted.
The Burning River when it first came out late in 2019.
A year later, I’m brave enough to contribute to a public conversation about Pākehā writing, so that Māori don’t always have to do the work of responding, and so that Pākehā have access to an alternative perspective.
Critiquing the fundamental decisions of a novel about identity makes a review pretty personal. I’ve held off commenting for so long because of this, but it begins to feel something like cowardice. As a white writer trying to challenge colonisation, in poetry and fiction, I’m also fair game for criticism. This is the point. We have to resist our own fragility – writer, reader, reviewer. We need to be able to analyse our writing choices – ethical and political as well as literary. If we can’t, we’ll continue to repeat a national narrative that serves Pākehā more than Māori. We’ll keep on evading rather than assuming responsibility for history and its consequences.