EVOKING THE DIASPORA

Name: EVOKING THE DIASPORA
Start: 2024-10-26T10:30:00+12:00
End: 2024-10-26T11:30:00+12:00
Location: SUTER THEATRE

Jade Kake + Saraid de Silva

Ngā Toi Māori Writers + Kōrero

Multi-generational migrant stories are finding compelling new ways of being told in the capable, creative hands of two of the best debut novelists in Aotearoa, Jade Kake and Saraid de Silva. Both explore belonging and the legacy of intergenerational trauma while mastering a unique way of sharing the diasporic experience. Chaired by Nathan Joe.

In their stunning debut novels, Saraid de Silva’s and Jade Kake’s stories have much in common – we learn about the migrant diasporic experience across three generations, they both explore what belonging looks like and they each examine the legacy of intergenerational trauma – but they have each also mastered a unique way of telling those stories.

In her bestselling debut novel, Amma (which The Spinoff declared would be ‘one of the big adult novels of the year’ while ReadingRoom declared it the ‘Novel of the Year’), de Silva tells a riveting story told by three point of view characters across each generation of a Sri Lankan family who are forever changed by one incident, which spans islands and sends ripples through time.

In Checkerboard Hill, Kake has crafted a story of belonging, dislocation, misunderstandings, identity and fractured relationships. Protagonist Ria, a wahine Māori who was born and raised in Australia but left in her teens has, since then, kept her Australian and New Zealand identities and lives separate – that is, until a family member dies and she returns to her whānau, which is swirling with family tensions and unfinished arguments, and forces her to reckon with her biggest secret.

Saraid de Silva (she/her)

Saraid de Silva is a Sri Lankan Pākehā writer and creative based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She is the co-creator and co-host of Radio New Zealand’s Conversations with My Immigrant Parents, a podcast and video series in which immigrant whānau across Aotearoa have frank conversations about love, ancestry, home, food, expectation and acceptance. In addition to Amma, de Silva was a contributor to A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand, and her work has been featured in The Spinoff, Fashion Quarterly, Pantograph Punch and Tupuranga Journal.

Jade Kake (she/her)

Jade Kake (Ngāpuhi — Ngāti Hau me Te Parawhau, Te Whakatōhea, Te Arawa) is an architect and writer of fiction and non-fiction. She is also the author of Rewi and Rebuilding the Kāinga – Lessons from Te Ao Hurihuri. She has won awards for architectural writing, received the Emerging Māori Writer’s Residency at the Michael King Writers Centre in 2019, and the Copyright Licensing New Zealand and New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa Writers’ Award in 2021. In 2020, she was a participant on Te Papa Tupu writers’ mentoring programme. She is also director and founder of Matakohe Architecture and Urbanism and has a Master of Architecture.

Nathan Joe (he/him)

Nathan Joe (he/him) is a New Zealand playwright (2021 Bruce Mason Playwriting Award) and performance poet (2020 National Slam Champion) of Chinese descent. He is the current Creative Director (2022-present) at Auckland Pride. In 2022, his play Scenes from a Yellow Peril had its world premiere at the ASB Waterfront Theatre. In 2023, his play Losing Face had its world premiere at Q Theatre. Other work includes curating BIPOC spoken word event Dirty Passports. 