Writers from the Moana often balance professional work, communal responsibility and familial obligation alongside the demands of their craft.

Join Festival Guest Curator and poet Zech Soakai in conversation with Tangata Moana writers Leilani Tamu, Talia Stanley and To’asavili Tuputala as they reflect on what it takes to sustain a writing life within these layered responsibilities.

Through talanoa, this session explores survival, care and discipline, and reflects on how writers serve both themselves and their communities through their work.

Questions of collective identity and individual calling come to the fore, alongside the skills required to remain devoted to craft while navigating expectation, labour and love.

Part of Zech Soakai’s Guest Curatorship.