Writer's Room: 'I leave you to dream the dream...'

Script to Screen presents the September Writer’s Room: ‘I leave you to dream the dream…’ : Telling Maori Stories, Writing Maori Characters with Merata Mita, Briar Grace-Smith & in association with Nga Aho Whakaari…

7.30pm, 29th September, The Classic, Auckland

Ka waiho iho e au ki a koutou te moemoea, he mea piripoho ki a au me oku hoa tokomaha i roto i nga tau, ko nga tikanga whai hua o to tatau Maoritanga, ko nga taonga no konei ake nei no tenei whenua kura, kia whakatapua hai koha ki Aotearoa.

I leave you to dream the dream that my many friends and I have treasured through the years, that the potent elements of our culture, those things which belong to this beautiful land, should be preserved as a heritage for New Zealand.           - A.T. Ngata

Esteemed activist, filmmaker and mentor Merata Mita (Bastion Point Day 507, Patu, Mauri, Hotere, Sundance mentor), playwright and screenwriter Briar Grace-Smith (Haruru Mai, Fish Skin Suit, Strength of Water) & actor and playwright Kirk Torrance (tbc) of Outrageous Fortune fame (Strata, Flintock Musket) speak about the dream with writer Kath Akuhata-Brown.

Nga Aho Whakaari is in the process of considering a Maori mark of approval for projects that follow a due procedure when crafting Maori stories.  Panelists will frame their discussion around the Maori mark, delving into questions pertinent to both non-Maori and Maori writers - questions of memory, truth, experience and interpretation. This is an opportunity for open dialogue about who can tell which stories, how they can be told - and who they are being told to.

Stay afterwards for pizza courtesy of Nga Aho Whakaari.