Koha - Keri Hulme

In 1985 novelist and poet Keri Hulme became an overnight literary star when her debut novel The Bone People won the Booker Prize. This interview for documentary series Koha took place in 1983, after the release of her first poetry collection The Silences Between (Moeraki Conversations). Hulme is filmed, very much at home, in Ōkārito, the former gold-mining town she moved to in 1973. Between excerpts of poetry, Hulme discusses her mixed Māori and Pākehā whakapapa, her voracious childhood appetite for reading, and her compelling reason for living and working on the West Coast — whitebait season.

I was fascinated to read a review by somebody in Auckland who a) thought I was a man, and b) said "the pain of being Māori is expressed in Hulme's poems", which intrigues me because yes, it is painful sometimes. But it's a continuing joy, you know? It's the strong part, your bones...

– Author Keri Hulme on expressing her Māori whakapapa in her writing

Key Cast & Crew

Ernie Leonard

Producer

Brent Leslie

Reporter