Eboni Waitere
“I have a vivid memory of being in the library in Masterton as a teenager and seeing this big, beautiful poster for the Huia Short Story Awards…”
Read Eboni’s story in te reo Māori here.
“I felt such excitement, knowing there were awards for Māori writing. Nearly thirty years later, I’m now a publisher and an executive director of Huia Publishers. We’ve just released a new collection of short stories from the competition (now known as the Pikihuia Awards). One of our newly signed authors told us recently too about her experience with Pikihuia, how she had entered the competition in those early years, and that it was one of the reasons she wanted to publish with us.
We create books that reflect a diversity of Māori perspectives – that’s business as usual for us. HUIA’s founder, Robyn Bargh began in 1991, building a strong fiction list and over the years we’ve grown and broadened into academic and educational publishing. Our educational programme has been Brian Morris’ huge contribution. Since 1991, we’ve published around 450 Māori authors, close to 50 Māori illustrators (at last count), and around 1,000 Māori language books.
When the kura kaupapa graduates who intern with us come to me with a HUIA book and tell me it was their childhood favourite, it brings home the significance of 30 years of our publishing. I’m a kura grad too and these moments really resonate. Our kids need to be able to see themselves in Māori stories in all sorts of ways. To create books that children want to read, we work with talented authors like Whiti Hereaka, Steph Matuku and Shilo Kino to tell stories that give Māori perspectives and show all the different things our children do, who they are, and want to be. In te reo Māori, we’re particularly focused on creating original stories. New works that engage and grip readers; that can’t be read in any other language or format first are exciting and encourage both readers and writers.
I could tell you something interesting or unique about each and every book we’ve made. It’s a privilege to work with authors like Sir Hirini Moko Mead and Dr Rangi Matamua on books that lead scholarship and allow mātauranga Māori to be read widely. In 2018, Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga and the Royal Society Te Apārangi celebrated Māori scholarship with Te Takarangi, a list of 150 significant Māori non-fiction books. The titles were revealed over a number of months, and we were reminded of the scope of our contribution – because a large number of these were HUIA books.
Copyright is very important for us. Our relationships with authors are based on trust. Central to this is our undertaking to protect authors and their work. Our authors trust us to be able to do this, yet our most infringed works are mātauranga Māori books. Around Matariki, for example, Dr Matamua’s book Matariki: The Star of the Year is frequently copied and used without permission, consultation or consent. It’s overwhelming, and I spend a lot of time and energy following these up. Most of the time this is about seeking proper acknowledgement, attribution and an apology, rather than compensation. My colleague Brian often reminds us of the story of Rātā in the forest of Tāne. It’s about respect – come to us, seek permission first, please don’t just cut the tree.
In the books we make there is often work by and rights that originate with multiple contributors. A few years ago, we published Haka, the story of the ‘Ka Mate’ haka, by Patricia Grace. Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha composed ‘Ka Mate’ and rights in it belong to that iwi and are protected in the Haka Ka Mate Attribution Act. To publish Haka we consulted with Ngāti Toa and gained their permission. Then we did an enormous amount of research for the art in the book to ensure the illustrations portrayed historical details accurately, like Te Rauparaha’s moko and the structure of the kūmara pit in which he hid from his enemies. Illustrators too trust us to look after the content they make, and when a book like Haka is copied without permission it can affect many people, many relationships and many rights.
Māori authors have often been cautious about publishing mātauranga Māori because once it’s in the public sphere it becomes more difficult to safeguard. Our knowledge is precious and important, and Aotearoa has to get better at protecting it. Legislation around infringement needs to be strengthened to protect our authors and their work. If we’re not able to do this effectively, authors will stop publishing – and there will be no new mātauranga Māori works in the public sphere. It’s as simple as that.”
Eboni Waitere is an owner and executive director of Huia Publishers.