Carrying the Tokotoko: Notes from the Poet Laureate

Kia ora koutou

It’s a great privilege to be the Aotearoa New Zealand Poet Laureate. I’ve greatly enjoyed spending time in communities from Northland to Te Wai Pounamu.

Just last month, I received the beautifully carved tokotoko from tohunga whakairo Jacob Scott at a ceremony at our National Library, just in front of the exhibition He Tohu, which contains the original copies of te Tiriti o Waitangi, He Whakaputanga, and the New Zealand Women’s Suffrage Petition.

Robert Sullivan and his tokotoko. Photo by Jo Moore.

Some thanks

Below are a few photos from the pōwhiri with my partner Angelina Young, my whānau and friends, and the support of our Puketeraki rūnaka with whanaunga Waiariki Parata Taiapa. There were so many others (aroha mai for not naming everyone) such as:

• fellow poets and writers

• colleagues from Massey University

• staff of the National Library and Archives New Zealand, including Chief Archivist Anahera Morehu

• John and Wendy Buck from Te Mata Estate, who supported the laureateship from its beginning

• the wonderful Dame Fiona Kidman

• Catherine Robertson, Carla Crosbie and Marty Smith from the Hawke's Bay Readers and Writers Festival, who have also done so much to support the laureateship

• the tangata whenua of Matahiwi Marae in the Hawke's Bay, Aramanu Ropiha and Beryl Armstrong, who came from Matahiwi that day

• Elizabeth Caffin, who was my first publisher at that amazing poetry powerhouse of Auckland University Press

• Tamahou Temara, Tumu Whakarae of Toi Māori Aotearoa

• previous laureates Chris Tse and Selina Tusitala Marsh (the Commonwealth Poet Laureate)

• mana whenua for Te Whanganui a Tara, Te Āti Awa, whose heartening kōrero and waiata kept us wrapped in wairua and mauri.

It was really great also to see Peter Ireland from the National Library recognised for his keen support of the laureates by the National Librarian, Rachel Esson, who also has my heartfelt thanks.

With members of our whānau. Photo by Jo Moore.

  

During the pōwhiri with whānau. Waiariki Parata Taiapa is to the right. Photo by Jo Moore.

  

Esteemed tohunga whakairo Jacob Scott during the presentation of the tokotoko. Photo by Jo Moore.

Poetry connections

I think one of the most moving things about the laureateship is learning about how poetry connects people to their own family members. At Auckland Museum last Anzac Day, it was fantastic to hear poetry from young people about their understanding of war and the importance of the sacrifices made, and their themes flowed into the work from older people there reflecting on the many contributions of our families.

It was the Museum’s twentieth and last Anzac Day poetry competition, so it was very special to join them.

Soon it’ll be my honour to give the annual memorial lecture for the Southland historian, biographer, novelist, poet and Rhodes Scholar, Dan Davin, in Invercargill. I’ll focus on my own good memories of Invercargill and the Catlins, and the discoveries I make in reading Davin’s work.

Last month I spoke at the Science Communication Association of New Zealand Conference about the lives of two trees — the original tōtara at Tōtara Estate in North Otago, and the other in Northland, a kauri. I chose them because they’re both places that our family is from.

The layers of the past provided the poems and the reflections on things like deforestation due to human arrival, the emotional power of poetry to describe our living world, and the many interrelationships the natural world has with our own wellbeing and connections. There is great hope in noticing these relationships at big and small scales.

Creative collaborations

I’ve recently written poems for an exhibition and publication by my esteemed friend the artist Maureen Lander whose new art installation will be at Auckland City Art Gallery later this year. I also wrote a children’s book for the artist Reuben Paterson’s beautiful crystal waka exhibit at the gallery’s entrance called Guide Kaiārahi.

It was also my honour to write a libretto for a choral work for the 70th anniversary celebrations of The Edgecumbe Choir in Whakatāne, which will be sung by the choir next year. The choral work is by composer Jeremy Woodside.

Sharing poetry

For Poetry Day, I ran a poetry workshop at Kerikeri Library in the Bay of Islands. We did exercises based on what we know about this beautiful world. This was run in conjunction with the New Zealand Poetry Society (NZPS). I did something similar for their Northland Writers and Poets Festival last year with Dame Fiona Kidman.

It’s also been a joy to work with Ngāti Manu whānau on a poetry collection with the support of NZPS. I also run poetry circles at the Ōamaru Library each Monday at lunchtime, and I learn a lot from our group as we share poems that inspire us.

In February I’ll be taking part in the Dawn Service for Waitangi Day at the Treaty grounds. It reminds me of my many times there as a child, and as an adult. Our tūpuna signed with the mark of his ngū moko, which is a tattoo mark on his nose. I like to think that he put his breath into te Tiriti o Waitangi in greeting.

Ka nui te mihi.