HE KUPU, HE MANA: The power in words

Matariki Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) is a 22-year-old award-winning Poet and Filmmaker. Matariki’s first book, ‘e kō, nō hea koe’ was published by Dead Bird Books in May. She is a founding member of Ngā Hinepūkōrero, a bilingual Slam Poetry Collective. A
number of her performances, including a presentation to thousands of people who gathered in Aotea Square to in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, have gone viral.

Airana Ngarewa (Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru, Ngāruahine) was born and raised in Pātea, a small town in Aotearoa famous for the song Poi E. His first novel, The Bone Tree, was published in 2023 and was the number-one bestselling book of fiction in New Zealand for 11 weeks. His second book, Pātea Boys, was released in 2024. It is a collection of stories about young boys and girls getting into mischief. The book reads one way in English and the other in te Reo Māori. His new book, The Last Living Cannibal, is set in Taranaki during the 1940s. It explores the concept of ‘muru’ as attempt to find balance rather than an act of revenge and is destined to become the epitome of a classic Aotearoa novel.