Forty distinguished authors, scholars, and writers from across Aotearoa will be in the region for the four-day event, including festival patrons Patricia Grace and Tā Tīmoti Karetu.
The event celebrating Māori literature begins today with the first speaker to be Carrington, whose books Lisa Carrington Chases a Champion and Ko Lisa Carrington me te Toa Whakaihuwaka are set in Ōhope.
Sole international guest Professor of Hawaiian and Indigenous Politics Noenoe K. Silva would talk about her book, The Power of the Steel-Tipped Pen, on Saturday. The book reconstructs the indigenous intellectual history of Native Hawaiians.
Rotorua author Hana Tapiata, 32, was looking forward to speaking on Friday about her latest book published by Harper Collins, Atua Wāhine.
Her current favourite story was about their granddaughter, the goddess Hine-Pū-Te-Hue, she said.
Personified as gourds – musical instruments – Hine-Pū-Te-Hue calmed the warring sons of Ranginui and Papatuānuku after their separation at the dawn of time.
“She absorbed all of that pain and transformed it into a song.”
Hana Tapiata is the author of Atua Wāhine and will be speaking at the Kupu Māori Writer’s Festival in Rotorua on Friday.
Tapiata said she collated the stories for the book last year, guided by elders and teachers.
She said the process taught her the difference between gatekeepers and groundskeepers of knowledge, and that sometimes groundskeepers were mistaken for gatekeepers.
“Oftentimes people who have matauranga or have knowledge are villainised or called gatekeepers for not letting anyone access knowledge, which is true sometimes, but then there are also groundskeepers who are also tasked with ensuring that the landscape is well, thrives and is pruned when needed.
“Then there’s also a realisation that some of the stuff isn’t for me to know and I don’t need to know everything,” Tapiata said.
Learning about atua or gods throughout the process resonated with her as a young woman and writer.
She hoped it “complimented” other wāhine who read the book, and served to “uplift and empower”.
“There are so many layers that I’ve put in there like putting the atua wāhine name first in whakapapa, which isn’t typical – usually it’s the male and female and then their descendants.
“Even the title atua wāhine – I never grew up with that.
“All the deities or the gods we have were just atua - some people have already reacted to that but any wananga that it stirs up is really good so that we can really just get intimate with our knowledge base.”
Organisers of the festival said they were looking forward to the workshops, readings, and discussions set out in the programme.
Kupu Trust chairman Rangitihi Pene said they were very excited to present such a “great line-up” and that the event was about inviting Māori writers to Rotorua to be Māori.
Each session was designed to inspire creativity, foster connection, and celebrate the power of storytelling as a means of preserving Māori cultural and heritage.
The festival opens with a powhiri at Te Papaiouru Marae in Ōhinemutu on Wednesday morning and closes with a gala dinner at Te Puia on Saturday night. The full programme can be found on the festival’s website.
Aleyna Martinez is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. She moved to the region in 2024 and has previously reported in Wairarapa and at Pacific Media Network.
