Hinemoana Baker

Titaua Peu’s video launched

Titaua Peu’s video launched

Posted on by Jane

A video recording Tahitian writer Titaua Peu‘s stay in Wellington was launched on 3 December.

French Cultural Counsellor, François Bockel

Titaua describes the explorations she undertook during her residency in Randell Cottage on the historical and cosmological links between Indigenous peoples of Polynesia. She foreshadows her planned dystopian trilogy, beginning with the forthcoming novel Disruptive – a tantalising prospect.

French Cultural Counsellor, François Bockel, shared the first showing of the Embassy’s video at a Randell Cottage writers’ event at the National Library.

Watch Titaua’s video

 
The occasion also featured the video of 2024 New Zealand writer in residence, Hinemoana Baker, commissioned from Godwit Films. It is accompanied on the website by Hinemoana’s reading of her poem ‘Placard: Te Ahumairangi’.
 
 
These recordings are designed as oral history records of the writers – both French and New Zealand – who have made Randell Cottage their home and a base for creative writing, in residencies that free them from the daily pressures of rent and living costs.
An evening with Saraid de Silva and previous Randell Cottage writers

An evening with Saraid de Silva and previous Randell Cottage writers

Posted on by Jane

Don’t miss the highlight of our Randell Cottage writing year!

Come along to the National Library on the evening of Wednesday 3 December to hear from our fascinating current writing Fellow, Saraid de Silva, as she shares early glimpses into her second novel, following the critical acclaim of ‘Amma’.

Saraid de Silva and Titaua Peu

You’ll also meet the new French Cultural Counsellor, François Bockel, who’ll introduce a video capturing the experience of our first resident from French Polynesia, Titaua Peu.

For those whose memories are still vivid from last year’s evening with Hinemoana Baker, you’ll love seeing her again in our video in which she reflects on time well spent at Randell Cottage.

Join us from 5.15pm for light refreshments, raffles, and conversation, with the main event running from 6 to 7 pm.

6–7pm, Wednesday 3 December
National Library Auditorium, Wellington

Friends of Randell Cottage are reminded that there will be a brief Special General Meeting in the auditorium immediately afterwards.

RSVP: info@randellcottage.co.nz by 5.30pm, 1 December.
Koha (suggest $5 pp) would be appreciated. Please bring cash for book raffles.

A Zoom link is available here.

See the attached flyer for more details and send us your RSVP.

Hinemoana Baker celebrates her time at Randell Cottage

Hinemoana Baker celebrates her time at Randell Cottage

Posted on by Jane

Here’s a special glimpse into what inspires our multi-talented writing resident, Hinemoana Baker, in two videos commissioned from Godwit Films as part of our Trust’s oral history.

The video series is designed to record the diverse experiences, aspirations and writing styles of Randell Cottage writers-in-residence.

Hinemoana spent an eventful second half of 2024 at Randell Cottage after returning from a long stay in Germany. In the videos, she traces her personal family history while sharing comparisons between the European cultural environment and artistic life back in Aotearoa New Zealand.

She shows how all of these influences have come together in the evolution of her project Exhaust World.

As a special bonus, Hinemoana reads the intricately-woven poem Placard: Te Ahumairangi, triggered by the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti in November 2024.


You can read more about Hinemoana’s residency, including another new poem, in her report to Trustees.

Video credits
Director – Jeremy Macey
Cinematographer – Ashlee Stevens
Sound recordist – Ursula Scott
Editor/colourist – Charlotte Jones
Author stills: Dirk Skiba, Chris Price, Leonarda Carta, William Connor
“He Niho Tō Te Moni” from Snap Happy album by Taniwha (Hinemoana Baker and Christine White), 2009.
Hinemoana Baker – 2024

Hinemoana Baker – 2024

Posted on by Jane

Poet and performer Hinemoana Baker (Ngāti Raukawa-ki-te-Tonga, Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Te Āti Awa, Kāi Tahu, England, Germany) will be using her six months in residence at Randell Cottage to work on a new collection of poetry, Exhaust World.

Hinemoana is a writer, performer, and educator currently based in Berlin. She has published four previous collections of poetry with Te Herenga Waka University Press: mātuhi | needle (2004), kōiwi kōiwi (2010), waha | mouth (2014) and Funkhaus (2021).

Of her new project Exhaust World she says: “As the name suggests, it will feature poems of despair and desperation. There will also be a good dose of fury, revenge, and some very dark jokes. The overall vibe is, yes, exhausted, both globally and personally. As if the title were an instruction, spoken into the past, and addressed to the machinery of geopolitics in which we find ourselves enmeshed no matter where on earth we live today.”

Hinemoana says she is thrilled to be taking up the residency: “I’m still pinching myself a bit, to be honest. Any opportunity to be able to write uninterrupted, especially with financial support, is extraordinarily appreciated. The huge bonus with this residency, of course, is that it means I can come home for a while. The last eight years in Germany have been extraordinary and formative, to say the least, and I am so looking forward to bringing my full self to the Randell Cottage Writers Residency and to the city I love, Te Whanganui-a-Tara.”

Further reading

Watch an interview with Hinemoana Baker

In this second video, Hinemoana reads the intricately-woven poem Placard: Te Ahumairangi, triggered by the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti in November 2024.