Witi Ihimaera: A Life in Writing

Witi Ihimaera: A Life in Writing

Witi has won numerous awards for his writing in the categories of short fiction and full-length novel, starting with the publication of the Pounamu Pounamu short story collection (1970), which was followed by another collection of short works, the “overtly political” The New Net Goes Fishing (1977).

His list of full-length novels is impressive, beginning with Tangi (1973) and Whanau (1974). The Matriarch (1986) is complemented with a sequel, The Dream Swimmer (1997). While in the United States, Witi wrote Dear Miss Mansfield (1989), after which came Bulibasha: King of the Gypsies (1994). Witi took a daring turn with Nights in the Gardens of Spain (1996), his first gay-themed novel. A focus on relationships and male sexuality continues in The Uncle's Story (2000). Witi’s most recent work is The Rope of Man (2005).

In Ihimaera: His Best Stories, the Anniversary Collection (2003), Witi offers a personal choice of stories accompanied by author notes. Daringly, Witi re-wrote some of his earlier novels for Whanau II: The Anniversary Collection (2004).

The novella “The Halcyon Summer” appears in Nine New Zealand Novellas, edited by Peter Simpson (2005). This is a companion volume to the bestselling Seven New Zealand Novellas.

Both The Whale Rider (1987) and The Little Kowhai Tree (2002) are written for young readers, the latter illustrated by Henry Campbell. A book I am obviously curious about is Sky Dancer (2003), which looks at a legendary battle between land birds and sea birds.

Witi is also an opera lover, which perhaps helped tremendously in his writing as the librettist for an opera by Ross Harris based on Whanau. In this he has joined the ranks of other major literary figures who have taken turns as librettists, including John Williams and David Henry Hwang.

As a Burns Fellow in 1975, Witi began editing the anthology Into the World of Light (1982), the precursor to the extensive, five-volume, Te Ao Marama series.

There is a substantial body of critical, biographical and bibliographical work about Ihimaera. Among his autobiographical articles, the ones in WLWE, Vol. 14, 1975; Tihe Mauri Ora (1978); New Zealand Through the Arts: Past and Present (1982); and Through the Looking Glass (1988) are useful.

Two extremely good interviews are by J.B. Beston in WLWE, Vol. 16, 1977, and Mark Williams in In the Same Room (1992). Book-length studies include Richard Corballis and Simon Garrett’s Introducing Witi Ihimaera (1984) and Umelo Ojinmah’s Witi Ihimaera: A Changing Vision (1993), which includes a useful bibliography.