Rotorua hosts launch for a special book on Māori tools and carving

Te Toki me te Whao: The Story and Use of Māori Tools was launched at the Te Puia retail store last Friday 11 November.

Author Clive Fugill is the long-standing Master Carver in the carving school at the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute, which forms part of Te Puia.

His book provides the perspective of an esteemed practitioner on the origins, manufacture and use of tools in Māori arts and daily life.

It is also the first book on the subject in over a century.

The title means ‘The Adze and the Chisel’.

Addressing guests at the launch, Māori Arts and Crafts Institute General Manager Eraia Kiel noted that the title is very appropriate, as it highlights the key tools for carving.

Author Clive Fugill (left) being greeted by Eraia Kiel, General Manager
of the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute

The book also covers the place of tools in mythology, usage elsewhere in the Pacific, and modern adaptations.

Clive Fugill (centre) with colleagues from the carving school

It is liberally illustrated with striking drawings by the author, and includes photos by Chris Hoult (who also took the featured launch photos).

Clive acknowledged the endorsement of Te Puia in bringing to fruition the book, which preserves knowledge that he has accumulated since he acquired his first adze at the age of nine.

Te Toki me te Whao  |  ISBN: 978-0-947506-13-1  |  RRP $39.99

Paperback, 250 x 185 mm portrait, 160 pages (8 pages colour)

Publisher Peter Dowling of Oratia Books (left), with Clive Fugill and Eraia Kiel

Clive Fugill signing books at the launch

All photos courtesy Chris Hoult: https://chphotographydotcodotnz.wordpress.com

A new take on classic Māui myth hits the bookshops today

How to tell a great traditional story in a way that can connect with young readers today in both Māori and English?

That was the challenge Oratia Books' Peter Dowling put to author Tim Tipene when explaining the concept for a series of books that would honour indigenous stories and languages in a modern context.

Tim’s response forms his tenth book, an imaginative retelling of Māui catching the sun – one of the great foundation myths of Māori culture.

In his version, Māui is a pre-teen who lives with his mum and four older brothers in a city where life is tough, in part because there’s never enough time in the day to get things done.

Māui – Sun Catcher follows Māui devsing a plan, driving with his brothers to the pit where the sun lives, and catching him in ropes of woven flax.

The trickster Māui, who speaks in rhyme, alternately charms and threatens the sun:

My ropes will slow you down.

You will drift across the sky

And people will see my ropes reaching down

Whenever you’re up high.

Bringing the text to life are vivid colour drawings by widely published illustrator and animator Zak Waipara, who has created a feel that is both contemporary and classic in this classy hardback.

The bilingual book features English and Māori in differently shaded type on each spread. Translations are by prominent musician and academic Rob Ruha.

Collaboration has been key to the series, Indigenous Voices – which has developed in part through creative input from a range of international publishers, including Mexican children’s book specialist Miriam Martinez and Oratia’s Editorial Director Carolyn Lagahetau.

So while it stands on its own and will be available across New Zealand, Māui – Sun Catcher is also a pilot for telling indigenous stories to readers worldwide.

Māui – Sun Catcher  |  ISBN: 978-0-947506-14-8  |  RRP $24.99
Hardback, 270 x 210 mm, 32 pages colour

Rob Ruha

Tim Tipene

Zak Waipara

Remembering Dario Fo

Dario Fo – actor-playwright, comedian, singer, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, painter, political campaigner and Nobel Prize winner – died on 13 October 2016 aged 90.

I was fortunate enough to meet him in 1989, when he was producing the play The Pope and the Witch at the Teatro dell'Arte in Milan, where my father Aldo and brother Marco worked. 

Thanks to my father I was able to sit discreetly in the back row of the theatre to watch the rehearsals, with Dario and his wife Franca Rame 'creating' the play, acting and directing it at the same time, tutoring and interacting with the numerous actors that surrounded them. 

Dario was a great man and a great writer too.

You can find a well written obituary in the Economist:

 http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21708977-playwright-actor-artist-and-all-round-provocateur-was-90

And a more extensive one in the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/oct/13/dario-fo-obituary

– Alessandra Zecchini

Milan: thousands attended the funeral of Dario Fo in Milan.
Photo courtesy of Marco Teatro

Photo courtesy of Marco Teatro