Witi Ihimaera is of Te Whānau a Kai, Te Aitanga a Māhaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Ira and Ngāti Porou. He began his career as a Māori writer with Pounamu, Pounamu (1972) to become one of Aotearoa’s leading novelists. With The Whale Rider (1987) he became a major international indigenous writer and his books Native Son (2014) and Navigating the Stars (2022) are read around the world; Whale Rider (2002), Kawa (2010) White Lies (2013) and Mahana (2016) are feature film adaptations of his work. In 2004 he became a Distinguished Companion of the Order of New Zealand and in 2017 France made him Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He was named a 2024 Royal Society of Literature International Writer. Primarily a writer in English, Witi Ihimaera attended Te Wānanga Takiura o Aotearoa in 2024, at 79, to learn how to write in te reo.