Witi Ihimaera

WITI IHIMAERA Writing Royalty Visits 53 Hobson Street

Witi Ihimaera makes his first school visit in three decades to talk about life and literature with QMC’s Year 9 and 10 English students.

As part of their unit on language and culture in 2021, Year 9 and 10 English students explored works of famed writer, Witi Ihimaera.

Mr Ihimaera, who is perhaps best known for penning ‘The Whale Rider’ (1987), was the first Māori writer to publish a collection of short stories, with ‘Pounamu, Pounamu’ in 1972. Year 9 studied several of his short stories and the history around the novel ‘The Parihaka Woman’, while Year 10 studied ‘The Whale Rider’ (the film and excerpts from the novel) and ‘Big Brother, Little Sister’ (the story and the film).

Thanks to the hard work of Dr Maggie Trapp, Mr Ihimaera agreed to visit Queen Margaret College and spend an afternoon with the very excited students that had been studying his works in the preceding weeks. This was quite remarkable as, according to Witi, it was his first school visit in nearly 30 years, making it a particularly special occasion for both students and staff. It was a great honour to host Mr Ihimaera at QMC and a unique experience for the girls. Well done to all the students involved on the day for asking thoughtful questions and responding eloquently when called upon.

This was not the only opportunity students had to spend time with the author of the work they were studying. Only weeks later, NCEA Year 13 students hosted Tina Makereti, a Wellington-based writer of one of the novels read by Year 13, ‘The Imaginary Lives of James Pōneke’. A big thanks to Dr Trapp for making these events possible.

Mr Ihimaera spoke in detail about his life and career, before answering the many questions of students. He spoke in detail about the role of women in his formative years, describing his mother as his biggest inspiration when he was growing up and when he became a writer. This discussion about inspiration led Mr Ihimaera to ask students to share their dreams for their futures, which made for quite a rousing afternoon. “