Auckland Libraries

For the very first session at the very first Going West Festival in 1996, it felt appropriate to open with the first language of Aotearoa, te reo Māori, with a session on Māori oral and written literature called Breathing Words. We were very proud to bring three stellar Māori voices to the stage to explore important Māori oral and acoustic traditions through te reo and taonga pūoro, and examine how they inform written literature and what ‘literacy’ means in the context of Aotearoa. Guests for this session were Ngāhuia Te Awekotuku, Robert Sullivan and Bernard Makoare. Ngāhuia Te Awekotuku (Te Arawa, Tūhoe) is a leading feminist writer, lesbian-rights activist and advocate for Māori sovereignty. She has contributed to many international feminist journals and published both fiction and research-based works internationally. Robert Sullivan (Ngāpuhi) is a poet and academic. He is a significant internationally published Māori poet with seven collections of poetry released. His poetry is also widely anthologi