Writing about ancestors or other figures from our pasts necessitates a collision between history and imagination. How much dramatic license can the creator have – be they novelist, historian, poet, musician or filmmaker – in depicting events they weren’t present at, in imagining conversations they never heard, in evoking the thoughts and emotions of those they never met?

Esteemed historian Hirini Kaa (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata) meets a dynamic range of creatives to discuss how they’ve navigated these very questions in their work: Whiti Hereaka (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa), winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction for Kurangaituku; Tim Worrall (Ngāi Tūhoe), filmmaker and author of 2024’s Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle Without End, set during the New Zealand Wars; and singer, poet, musician and author Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu).

Ka tuhia ana he kōrero mō ngā tūpuna, mō ētahi kē atu rānei nō ngā rā o mua, ka tūtuki rawa ko te hītori me te pohewatanga. He pēhea nei te nui o te awe auaha ka taea e te kaiwaihanga - ahakoa ringatuhi pakimaero, hītori, toikupu rānei, ahakoa ringa puoro, ahakoa kaiwaihanga kiriata rānei - nō rātou ka whakaatu ake i ētahi kaupapa kīhai i wheakotia e rātou, nō rātou ka pohewa ki ētahi whakawhitinga kōrero kīhai i rangona e rātou, nō rātou ka whakaara ake i ngā whakaaro me ngā kare ā-roto o tētahi hunga kīhai i tūtakina e rātou?

Ka tūtaki atu te pou hītori rangatira, a Hirini Kaa (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata) ki tētahi kāhui ringa auaha hihiri ki te wānanga i te āhua i whakautua ai ēnei momo pātai i ā rātou mahi: ko te ringatuhi pakimaero tērā, ko te toa hoki o te tohu Jann Medlicott Acorn mō te kōrero paki, i tana pukapuka, i a Kurangaituku, ko Whiti Hereaka (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa); ko te kaiwaihanga kiriata me te kaituhi tērā o Ka Whawhai Tonu - Struggle Without End nō te tau 2024, he mea whakaatu i te wā o ngā riri whenua ki Aotearoa, ko Tim Worrall (Ngāi Tūhoe); otirā, ko te kaiwaiata, ko te ringatuhitoikupu, ko te ringa puoro, ko te kaituhituhi hoki tērā, ko Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu).

Part of the He Ahi Kei Taku Korokoro curation by Michael and Matariki Bennett.