Lecture - Goddess: Mythic Women of the Pacific

26 September 2006

MEDIA RELEASE

Goddess: Mythic Women of the Pacific

Free public lecture

As part of Fulbright New Zealand’s annual alumni lecture series, Fulbright alumni and renowned Polynesian women writers Tusiata Avia and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku will give a free public lecture in October, to discuss their Fulbright experiences in the US and read from their recent writings about mythic women of the Pacific.

Poet Tusiata Avia held the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer’s Residency at the University of Hawai’i in 2005. While on her three-month residency at the University’s Mänoa campus, she worked on an epic semi-autobiographical series of poems drawing inspiration from Samoan goddess Nafanua. An acclaimed performance poet and writer of poetry, radio dramas and children’s books, Avia’s first collection of poetry, Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, was published by Victoria University Press in 2004 and has been performed widely by the author as a solo stage show.

Dr Ngahuia Te Awekotuku received a Fulbright New Zealand Travel Award in 2004 to speak alongside writers Toni Morrison and Gayatri Spivak at the Modern Language Association’s annual convention in Philadelphia. A researcher for the University of Waikato’s Maori & Psychology Research Unit, Dr Te Awekotuku is an expert in tä moko (Mäori tattoo), and has authored many non-fiction and fiction books including Ruahine: Mythic Women – a collection of modern retellings of traditional Mäori myths published by Huia Publishers in 2003.

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GODDESS: MYTHIC WOMEN OF THE PACIFIC

A free public lecture by Tusiata Avia and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku

Fulbright alumni and renowned Polynesian women writers Tusiata Avia and Dr Ngahuia Te Awekotuku discuss their Fulbright experiences in the US and read from their recent writings about mythic women of the Pacific.

5:30-7:00pm, Thursday 19 October 2006

National Library of New Zealand Auditorium

58-78 Molesworth Street, Wellington (Aitken Street entrance)

Please register your attendance by emailing info[at]fulbright.org.nz or phoning (04) 472 2065 by Monday 16 October

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ENDS

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