From missionary to maverick

Peter Wells (right) is writing on missionary William Colenso, and Damian Skinner is researching Maori carvers. Photos / Hawkes Bay Today, Supplied

If there's one question writer Peter Wells could ask William Colenso, it's this: "Where's that letter your wife wrote saying she didn't want to have sexual relations with you any more?"

It might seem a strange question for a long-dead New Zealand missionary but the missing letter could help to explain Colenso's moral downfall, why he found solace with someone else and fathered an illegitimate Maori child.

"He was such an inveterate saver of letters," says Wells, "why did he not keep this one?"

Wells should know, having followed the fascinating paper trail left by the missionary, botanist, explorer and printer, a trail so extensive it was like "climbing a mountain of words".

It's that determination to paint a human portrayal of the man who spoke up in protest at the Treaty of Waitangi signing that has earned Wells one of the top literary prizes in New Zealand, a Copyright Licensing Limited Award worth $35,000. It's the biggest prize money awarded to individual non-fiction writers in New Zealand (financed from copyright licensing revenue received on behalf of authors and publishers).

The money provides Wells with the financial freedom to complete his book, The Hungry Heart: The Enquiring Mind, a series of biographical essays on William Colenso. Dr Damian Skinner is the other recipient this year, for his forthcoming book The Hands of the Ancestors: Customary Maori Carvers in the Twentieth Century.

The writers received their prizes at a function at the Viaduct on Thursday night, and in doing so, joined an impressive legacy: previous winners include Jill Trevelyan, C. K. Stead and Stevan Eldred-Grigg.

Keen to celebrate, Wells promptly visited Colenso's grave with a rose plant "to soften it", suggesting his connection has developed beyond the tomb.

"I am starting to get the feeling of living in his thoughts a lot. He was a very contradictory man, a difficult person. There's something disarming about his awkwardness, he was trying to do his best but he kept putting his foot in it.

"My aim is to really freshen up people's knowledge of exactly who this man was, because we see different sides of him but rarely do we see him as one man. I'm interested in William Colenso the thinker. He was around during the very volatile colonial period, the Land Wars. He arrived in New Zealand in 1836 _ pre-Treaty _ so he lived in a very volatile period in our history.

"He had this huge fall from grace from his life as a missionary so he was confronting extremely awkward questions of his own personal morality. He almost reinvented himself. I see him as a real maverick, a lively intellectual."

The prize is yet another accolade for Wells after his 2006 induction as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to literature and film.

The acclaimed novelist, essayist and filmmaker is well known for his interest in gay and historical themes, notably in his films A Death in the Family and Desperate Remedies, and in his Montana-winning memoir, Long Loop Home. He is the co-founder of the Auckland Readers and Writers Festival, with Stephanie Johnson.

The judges praised Wells' approach as providing a poetic portrayal of a historical figure _ but can we trust the writer, particularly one who recreated history in novels such as Iridescence and Lucky Bastard _ to paint an accurate picture?

"It will all be footnoted so it can all be traced back to its source. I won't be making up porkies," he says. "I am hoping to lend a quality of imagination to the past he inhabited so I will draw on my skills as a novelist _ because life back then was very different."

Wells will post updates on the book on his blog, www.peterwellsblog.com.

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While Wells is on the brink of writing, Skinner is yet to embark on his research.

His book is just an idea, the funding of which is justified by his previous work _ and a world of unknowns documenting customary Maori art after the 19th century. Skinner hopes to discover the stories left behind by traditional Maori carvers whose work is embedded in various wharenui (meeting houses) around the country. Although he didn't set out to be a writer, a chance encounter with master carver Tuti Tukaokao while living in Tauranga as a student inspired him to dig deeper into the spiritual, practical and artistic influences on Maori artists, many of whom were inspired by modern art.

"I wanted to understand who he was _ on one hand he was a customary carver who followed all these rules and conventions, but he talked like a modernist. He'd say, European artists don't all have to paint like Michelangelo, why should I follow these rules? I wanted to understand why he'd speak one way and do another. Then came the responsibility to answer all the questions I had, and my interest kept springing from there."

Skinner's work in the area of New Zealand's art history is prolific. Since his PhD thesis: Another Modernism: Maoritangi and Maori Modernism in the 20th Century (2006), he has written or co-written a further seven works.

"There has been a general perception that Maori art was great before Pakeha came along, and then came this flourishing when carvers went all out with hand steel chisels, and after that it got weaker. But you wouldn't say that now. It got me thinking _ why build a wharenui in the 1950s? There's a lot of research already on Apirana Ngata and I see him as having a big part to play in whare development, but what else happened? I'm not sure anyone really knows."

The CLL prize money will be of particular use in getting Skinner around the country to study various whare, and will help with photography. But first he will need to build new relationships. In his experience as a Pakeha entering a Maori world, that isn't always easy. Throughout his research he is used to coming up against angry, hostile questioning.

"Maori are frequently wary of how they're written about and they're tired of explaining themselves to Pakeha," says Skinner, who lives with a Maori family in Gisborne.

"I work with carvers and I have a PhD and none of them do, yet they hold the knowledge. It seems unfair that I profit from that. These artists are conceptually vigorous and that's not recognised. People haven't had access to some parts of their culture _ and I'm getting access.

"I understand if people don't always think it's fair. It's time that Maori didn't have to explain themselves to Pakeha people. Pakeha people can explain to other Pakeha. That's how I see my role."