The remarkable Mr Bennett

The chapter has closed on another highly successful Marlborough Book Festival. Kat Duggan caught up with guest author Michael Bennett.

One of New Zealand’s most remarkable story tellers has shared some insight into his own journey.

Michael Bennett was shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at this year’s Ockham New Zealand Book Awards with his most recent work and first novel, Better the Blood His crime thriller novel, set in Auckland today, tells the story of a series of seemingly unconnected murders, which are found to be linked by police officer, Hana Westerman.

Westerman makes the connection when she realises each victim is a descendant of a different member of a British Army troop who wrongly, and brutally, executed a Māori chief during the colonisation of New Zealand. The book cleverly highlights the injustices faced by Māori not only at the time of the colonisation, but which continue to stand today.

“I wrote this book to entertain the hell out of the reader. I love crime thrillers. It’s my favourite genre,” Michael says.

“But if you write, entertaining is just one part of it. You write because you have something to say, something burning inside, something you feel is important.

“In creating Better the Blood, I want to offer something more between the lines. For me the book is a kind of Trojan Horse that explores deeper meanings, talking about things that I think are important to talk about for New Zealanders, about where we are, how we got here, and where we are going.”

Michael’s upbringing played a big part in his pursuit of a career as a writer. His father, a decorated

Spitfire pilot in WWII, gave him a passion for fighting the important fights, while his mother, a talented writer, gave him a love of words and an awe for their power to change the world.

“I was born on November 5th, and growing up I was taught about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, the house of Windsor and the history of the British Empire.

“Meanwhile, here’s what I was taught about the bloody colonisation of our own country; exactly nothing. With the support of the best-equipped military force on the planet (the British Army), my ancestors’ lands, self-determination and self-governance were stolen.

“We came terrifyingly close to the genocide of our language, our culture, of us as a people. Māori today remain massively ‘disadvantaged across every socio-economic matrix,” he says.

Michael discussed his work in conversation with renowned journalist Mike White.

The sessions, Better the Blood and Telling Crucial Stories for Page and Screen, delved into both his latest novel, as well as his work bringing the case of wrongfully convicted murderer, Teina Pora, to the public eye.

“Telling Teina’s story was something that took over my career for the best part of a decade.

“It was a story I wish I never had to tell; the story of a young Māori man betrayed by a scandalously inept and profoundly flawed justice system.

“I made a documentary about

Teina’s story, I co-wrote and directed a dramatic feature, and I wrote In Dark Places, a non-fiction novel. Looking back on all three works, there’s fire and anger bubbling just beneath the surface – Teina became a close friend of me and my family, and what happened to him devastates me to this day,” Michael says.

“There is absolutely a direct shining line between telling Teina’s real-life story, and the writing of my first fiction novel, Better The Blood. Writing In Dark Places was about unpeeling and laying bare the real and awful and ongoing issues with the justice system’s treatment of Māori, as exemplified and made tangible in the tragedy of Teina Pora; with Better The Blood, I could use fiction- al thriller storytelling to explore equally urgent and difficult issues that I believe we should be talking about.”

Better the Blood had nine translations confirmed before going on sale anywhere in the world, described as ‘the first crime thriller about a Māori detective, written by a Māori author’.

“I think, and hope, that the interest in the book here and internationally reflect that this is a time when the voices of indigenous storytellers are being not only heard but actively sought.

“And I also hope that this is a time when we are starting to embrace the need to understand and deal with our past in order to ever truly move forward,” Michael says. Session host Mike White, himself an investigative journalist with an interest in crime and justice, says Michael’s sessions were a highlight for festival attendees.

“Michael Bennett is simply an exceptional storyteller.

“His work across books, TV and movies has been remarkable, and he tells the stories of those we’d often not know about,” he says.

To see a crime thriller make the Ockham awards shortlist is almost unprecedented, Mike says.

“But [Better the Blood] is much more than a cop-on-the-killer’strail book, with Michael’s own experiences in the real-life world of crime, justice and injustice filling its pages, and filling our heads with truly challenging questions,” he says.

“His own story is incredible, and I think audiences at this year’s Marlborough Book Festival will come away thinking his sessions were the highlight of their weekend … we’re incredibly lucky to have him at this year’s festival.”

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