The recent New Zealand Young Writers Festival and associated wānaka was a fabulous success, and although these Critic Te Ārohi writers were both part of this year’s cohort, we promise we aren’t biased. It’s all happening in our very own UNESCO City of Literature.
The festival is organised annually by the team at Dunedin Fringe, and they truly outdid themselves this year. For the second year, a wānaka was offered for a selected cohort of twenty seven writers aged 18 to 35. This was a three day stay at Puketeraki Marae in Karitane, and was guided by a tuakana/teina framework to offer inspiration and skill building.
The wānaka began with a pōwhiri and a Talitali kava ceremony, which gave writers the opportunity to both honour our passed loved ones and use their mana to set an intention for the duration of the festival. We also embarked upon a guided tour around Huriawa pā, honouring the stories of the land we had come to write our own on.
Each morning we had the opportunity to greet the sunrise with karakia and waiata. It was a great way to ground ourselves before we got busy writing and creating. Although nothing to do with writing, watching the sun come up over Huriawa pā was definitely a highlight, and definitely some sources on inspo. Each night ended with an open mic in the wharenui, sharing new and old pieces, and, while a little daunting, this certainly worked to build connections between twenty seven incredibly talented writers.
This year’s tuakana also offered workshops which ranged from Eric Soakai guiding the cohort through a detailed life mapping session of our past and future (including our death date), to Josiah Morgan, the 2026 Young Writer in Residence, teaching us to be comfortable within the uncomfortable, through movement. We also listened to kōrero from Antony Deaker and Nick Tipa on managing artist funds, taxes, and grant applications – all that good stuff no one teaches you in high school.
Vanessa, Hannah, Katrina, and the entire team at Fringe truly deserve the world for making this festival possible, and somehow managing to make it even better year after year. This year’s tuakana, Eric and Rauhina Kohuwai-Banks, were also instrumental with their work behind the scenes, and their grounding presence at the wānaka. There’s sure to be many talented young writers popping up in Ōtepoti in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled.
The actual festival programme then opened with this cohort of young writers presenting their beautiful writing in Pou Kōrero, Pou Talanoa: Posts that Speak. This event closed with the writers singing the waiata written by last year’s cohort, and now the official waiata of the festival – pretty cool for both of us, who are lucky enough to have attended two years in a row.
The weekend then involved a jam-packed schedule, with workshops on slam poetry, zine making, multilingual collaborative poetry, and ritual. It’s safe to say the writing process is a lot more involved than just staring at a blank Word document. In particular, Tara Leckie’s workshop ‘Talking to the Dark’, was a highlight for many festival attendees, with one writer remarking that it was “a healthy way to bounce thoughts around that may be not as frequently spoken about, and then come back to the safety of the light.” The Otago Poetry Slam Champs also kicked off Saturday night with some truly incredible performances.
The festival wrapped up with a panel discussion from a select five of the cohort, discussing courage and revolution in their work, and their lives. The panel touched on lived experience, aliveness, the mess of collaboration, the suspension of disbelief, and initiative in response to resignation. It was a bright and active kōrero, and MC Rachel O’Neill provided insightful questions that really allowed the room to get to the core of this kaupapa.
But this wasn’t quite the end for the cohort themselves, who gathered afterwards for their closing reflections and poroporoaki. You could tell everyone in that room was a poet, and even more so, you could tell how truly meaningful the whole experience had been for everyone.
If this sounds like a bit of you, we’ll see you same time next year! In the meantime, check out all the other awesome mahi the Fringe team are doing year round, and think about writing for our very best city’s very best mag next year (Critic – in case that wasn’t clear).
