2025 Programmes

Ruby Macomber

Ruby Macomber

Ruby Rae Lupe Ah-Wai Macomber is uri of the shores of Itu'ti'u, the flowers of Taveuni and the mighty tentacles of Te Pū o Te Wheke.

In 2024, Ruby was the Guest Curator of the New Zealand Young Writers' Festival in Ōtepoti and Writer in Residence the year prior. Her poem, 'Cry Sis', featured in Mana Moana - Pasifika Voices, was shown at the most recent United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Her recent work features in Landfall, The Pantograph Punch, The Spinoff, Metro, Awa Wāhine, Starling and Waka Kuaka - The Journal of the Polynesian Society.

Since 2020, Ruby has facilitated and now manages Te Kāhui, a creative kaupapa for incarcerated young people to amplify Indigenous narrative agency. In 2023, the rōpū co-edited 'Taiohi Inside', an anthology of writing from creatives within Mount Eden Correctional Facility. This mahi, alongside her lived experience and studies, informs her commitment as a teina to Indigenous movements for abolition and liberation.

'My Moana Girls' is her debut chapbook published by ngā pukapuka pekapeka.