New spin on Mäori legend wins short story prize

massey-university

Tue Sep 29 2009 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

New spin on Mäori legend wins short story prize

Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 11:08 am
Press Release: Massey University

Monday, September 28, 2009

Massey life writing lecturer Tina Dahlberg has won the Huia Publishers Best Short Story Award for Skin and Bones, a tale that puts a new twist on a classic legend.

Skin and Bones, written by Ms Dahlberg under the name Tina Makereti, takes the story of the creation of the first woman by Tane Mahuta the Mäori god of the forests and plays with the legend by imagining what would happen if Tane were human rather than a god. “I was interested in exploring the story because often the gods are presented as invulnerable alpha males and the female characters are sometimes not given any depth,” says Ms Dahlberg. “I wanted to give them more complex human characteristics.”

Award judge David Geary, a playwright and fiction writer, was wowed by the story. “It was bold and sexy, a crafty combo of mystery and history that made the old new.”

Ms Dahlberg, who is of Ngäti Tüwharetoa, Te Atiawa, Rangatahi and Moriori descent, says she has been interested in mythology ever since she can remember. A further interest in “what makes people tick”, “makes for an irresistible combination”, she says.

Skin and Bones is from a collection of short stories, Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa, which will be published by Huia Publishers early next year. The collection features both old myths and new, Ms Dahlberg says, the new exploring contemporary ideas about family, society and culture. “There are a couple about our drinking culture, how we live by certain unwritten rules about what is okay or expected, these are societal or national myths that we need to look beneath.”

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Ms Dahlberg lives on the Kapiti Coast and teaches life writing internally and extramurally from the Wellington campus, and was the 2007 recipient of the University’s R G Frean Prize for Creative Writing. She completed a Bachelor of Arts and Postgraduate Diploma in Mäori Development at Massey and is currently completing a PhD through Victoria University. “My PhD will eventually become a novel, it is inspired by one of my ancestors and will explore the complex web of interrelationships and conflicts between Moriori, Mäori and Päkehä. In a way it’s inspired by whakapapa [genealogy].”

Her advice to other aspiring writers is to take up formal writing training. “I have to say taking writing courses and papers has really accelerated my improvement,” she says. “You get the chance to work with other aspiring and established writers, and you learn how to absorb and deal with constructive criticism. Deadlines also help me to make sure I keep working at stuff, and competitions and courses are great for creating deadlines too.”

Tina Dahlberg (right) winner of the Huia Publishers Best Short Story in English Award with Massey creative writing tutor Kelly Joseph (Ngäti Maniapoto) whose entry Time Zone was highly commended by the judges. Ms Joseph lives in Paekakariki and was chosen as the Mäori writer in residence at Kapiti Island from June 22 to August 16 this year.

Ends

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