WitiIhimaera
- Writer
With his 1973 book Tangi, Witi Ihimaera became the first Māori to publish both a novel and a collection of short stories. His book The Whale Rider inspired an internationally acclaimed feature film that became one of the highest-grossing foreign titles in 2003. Ihimaera’s work has also inspired films Mahana and White Lies, and has seen television adaptations including landmark big-city tale, Big Brother, Little Sister.
Screenography
Biography
Gisborne-born Witi Ihimaera began writing on the bedroom wall of an East Coast farm. In the 60s he dabbled in journalism and did time as a postman, a job which took him to Wellington. From early on Ihimaera used fiction as a way to express his experiences of being Māori. A year after completing a Bachelor of Arts in 1971 his short story collection Pounamu Pounamu was published, followed by award-winning novel Tangi. Ihimaera talks about his journey as a writer in this 1982 Kaleidoscope special, and a 1997 documentary made for Work of Art, and returns to the East Coast for this documentary from 1986.
Awards
2009 Arts Foundation Laureate Award
2009 Creative New Zealand Te Waka Toi Awards (Māori Arts Awards)
Te Tohutiketike a te Waka Toi (Supreme Award)
2004 Distinguished Companion — New Zealand Order of Merit
For Services to Literature
“I belong to a proud tradition of Māori story-teller on one side and a great tradition of New Zealand writers going all the way back to Katherine Mansfield. It's a fabulous whakapapa.”