Two Indigenous Women and Their Creative Practice Doctoral Journeys

Authors

Keywords:

Indigenous creative practice PhD, Māori literature, Rotuman ancestral knowledge, toi Māori, Māori art, creative writing, Indigenous poetry, digital art

Abstract

This article showcases the creative work and haerenga/sal fạiva (journey/creative journey) of two writer-scholar-artist creative-practice doctoral candidates—Marama Salsano and Mere Taito—who recently completed international arts residencies in Canada and Melbourne, respectively. Specifically, Marama Salsano contemplates Indigenous generosity and resistance through poetry and reflections about the creation of her LandBack fabric banner at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada, and Mere Taito presents digitally authored visual poems that were inspired by the in-person, residential gathering of her Creative New Zealand/Creative Australia digital arts fellowship in Melbourne. Ultimately, the authors of this paper draw strength from their Pacific roots and ever-widening Indigenous spaces, which allow their creative doctoral research to flourish.

Author Biographies

Marama Salsano, Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington

Marama Salsano (Ngāi Tūhoe, Te Aitanga a Māhaki, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Wairere) is a māmā, writer, ringatoi (artist) and PhD candidate at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka, New Zealand, where she works within the broad field of Māori and Indigenous literary studies. Marama’s creative writing has been recognised in national fiction competitions and has been published in various anthologies and journals. In 2023 her fiction was longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and she was a finalist in the Pikihuia Awards for Māori writers. Her current visual work includes contemporary paintings of upoko whakairo (carved heads) on wood, fabric protest banners and object poetry.

Mere Taito, Te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou | University of Otago

Mere Taito (Rotuma (Fiji): Malha‘a and Noa‘tau) is a creative writer based in Kirikiriroa Hamilton in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Otago Te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou exploring the impacts of reading Rotuman archival multilingual texts on the writing of multilingual poetry. Her study positions digitally authored multilingual poetry as an effective language-learning resource for Rotuman language regeneration in Aotearoa. Her creative work has been published widely in anthologies and journals such as Bonsai and Best New Zealand Poems. She is co-editor of the anthology Katūīvei: Contemporary Pasifika Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand (Massey University Press, 2024).

Cover of March 2024 issue

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Published

2024-04-15

Issue

Vol. 133 No. 1 (2024): Waka Kuaka | Journal of the Polynesian Society

Section

Shorter Communications / Talanoa

License

Copyright © 2024 by the Polynesian Society (Inc.)

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process without written permission.

Inquiries should be made to:

Dr Marcia Leenen-Young, Editor
The Polynesian Society
c/o School of Māori and Pacific Studies
The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019, Auckland
New Zealand

email: m.leenen@auckland.ac.nz