H O N E    T U W H A R E    C R I B    -    K A K A    P O I N T

This report has been commissioned by The Hone Tuwhare Charitable Trust.

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Hone Tuwhare was one of the best New Zealand poets of the post war generation and was the most distinguished Maori poet writing in English,. Born in 1922 in the small settlement of Kokewai, just south of Kaikohe, into the Nga Puhi tribe (hapu Ngati Korokoro, Ngati Tautahi, Te Popoto, Uri-o-hau) Tuwhare began writing during his apprenticeship on the railways, when he also became involved in the trade union movement. He was an organiser of the first Maori Writers and Artists Conference at Te Kaha in 1973 and participated in the Maori Land March of 1975. He won two Montana NZ Book Awards, was Te Mata Poet Laureate, and held two honorary doctorates in literature. In 2003 he was among ten of New Zealand’s greatest living artists named as Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon Artists.

Hone Tuwhare lived at Kaka Point from 1992 until he passed away in 2008.