A human compass:
Ruby Mae Hinepunui Solly on finding her way
Kāi Tahu are multi-faceted; this we know. But Ruby Mae Hinepunui Solly (Kāi Tahu – Waihao, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha,) takes multi-faceted to the next level. At just 25, Ruby has had more success than she’s willing to admit. Kaituhi RACHEL TROW (Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) spoke to Ruby about her Kāi Tahutaka and the next generation of Māori storytellers.
with an impressive array of creative tools in her kete, ruby is adamant she is Kāi Tahu before anything else. Poet, writer, cellist, taoka puoro practitioner, doctoral candidate, artist, music therapist: every part of Ruby is informed by her Kāi Tahutaka. “Hearing people think of me as a Kāi Tahu writer before they think of me as any other kind of writer, I think that’s really beautiful,” she says. “It also gives you a scope, as in, I’m writing Kāi Tahu writing. I’m not writing poetry, I’m not writing fiction, I’m not writing non-fiction, I’m writing Kāi Tahu writing.” Ruby is flattered to be thought of in this way – as a young wahine 24 TE KARAKA MAKARIRI 2021
Māori she looked up to Hinemoana Baker as a writer who was Kāi Tahu first. Ruby is always quick to acknowledge the mana wāhine that came before her – from literary ancestors to her own tūpuna. Life for young Ruby was based in the Central Plateau. Whakapapa Village, Raurimu, Rotorua and Taupō-nui-a-Tia were her schools, playgrounds, and resting places. She grew up away from her marae at Waihao, but recalls it fondly. This bittersweet emotion is a theme in Ruby’s poetry collection, Tōku Pāpā, published earlier this year. Her book’s namesake, her Kāi Tahu father, feeds many important memories from her childhood.
