Emerging Māori Writer in Residence

Apply for the Emerging Māori Writer in Residence—$15,000 stipend, mentorship, and writing space.

About the residency

The Emerging Māori Writer's Residency was established in 2019 by Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, with the support of Creative New Zealand. It runs for three months in the first half of each year, funding dependent, and includes a writing room, a mentor from the Māori arts community, and a stipend of $15,000. Projects may be written in English or te reo Māori and the residency is open to Māori writers in all areas of literary activity, including drama, fiction and poetry (page and performance), devised performance, creative nonfiction, literary translation, and graphic novels, but excluding writing for film or television.

Applicants should be writers at an early stage of their career, with a growing body of work, and must be either New Zealand citizens or hold permanent residency. There is no restriction on the occupation of applicants, but they should not be full-time employees of Creative New Zealand or the University, nor have been employed on a full-time basis by the University in the twelve months prior to the closing date.

Our 2025 resident was Dr Pounamu Jade Aikman (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Tarāwhai, Te Arawa, Ngāti Uenukukōpako).

Our 2026 resident will be Terri Te Tau (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne ki Wairarapa).

During the application period, a full role description and application form will be available on the Current Vacancies page of the University's website. Enquiries can be directed to modernletters@vuw.ac.nz.

We also offer the three-month Emerging Pasifika Writer's Residency, and the full-year Victoria University of Wellington/Creative New Zealand Writer's Residency on an annual basis.

2026 Emerging Māori Writer in Residence—Terri Te Tau (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne ki Wairarapa)

A fiction writer and artist, Terri is a member of the art collective Mataaho, a group of four artists whose large-scale art installations are based on contemporary Māori narratives and weaving practices. Their work won the prestigious Golden Lion at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Mataaho are Arts Foundation Laureates and winners of the 2021 Walters Art Prize.

Terri's research is centred around connections between indigenous knowledge systems, science, speculative fiction and the environment. She completed a PhD in Creative Arts from Massey University in 2015 before becoming a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation at Massey University. Since then she has worked as a teacher and as a curriculum writer and designer for NZQA on Māori Visual Arts.

Terri's writings on art have appeared in a range of publications. As a fiction writer, her short story 'Hīkoi Whetū' won the Emerging Māori category of the Sunday Star Times short story competition in 2024 and her work was also anthologised in Year's Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction 2021. Terri was chosen for the Te Papa Tupu - Emerging Māori Writers mentorship programme in 2016.

During her three-month residency at the IIML, Terri will work on a novel based around the harakeke trade of the 1800s, and the relocations and relationships that emerged from the changing economy. She will explore how harakeke initiates space for inter-personal relationships, and imagine how this might continue to develop into the future. Terri's first novel, a speculative and historical fiction titled The Valley of Unlikely Acquaintances, is scheduled to be published with Spoor Books in 2026.

2025 Emerging Māori Writer in Residence—Pounamu Jade Aikman (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Tarāwhai, Te Arawa, Ngāti Uenukukōpako)

Kaupapa Māori scholar Dr Pounamu Jade Aikman has a PhD exploring Ngāi Tūhoe policing experiences, and now works across the education, justice, and health sectors, with a focus on Māori and Pasifika communities. He grew up in Gisborne, Auckland, Christchurch, and Timaru. He has contributed essays to several books, including The Palgrave Handbook on Rethinking Colonial Commemorations and Towards a Grammar of Race, and his writing has also appeared in a variety of journals and magazines.

Pounamu completed his PhD at Australian National University in 2020, following a Master of Arts in Anthropology with Distinction at the University of Otago, where he also completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours First Class in Māori Studies. In 2021, he received a Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Scholar Award to study at Harvard University and the University of Hawai'i.

During his three-month residency at the IIML, Pounamu will work on a book of essays titled Whose Knowledge Counts? From Warp Drive to Waka Huia. The book will be published by Bridget Williams Books and will critically and creatively explore the tension between Indigenous and settler knowledge systems, focusing on the fundamental question of whose knowledge is prioritised in Aotearoa today.

Read more about Pounamu Jade Aikman:

• Mana Pounamu Consulting
• Dr Pounamu Jade Aikman's Road to Harvard (Stuff, 12 July 2021)

Previous Emerging Māori Writers in Residence

All photos by Robert Cross.

2025  Pounamu Jade Aikman (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Tarāwhai, Te Arawa, Ngāti Uenukukōpako). Portrait to come.

2024 Shelley Burne-Field (Sāmoa, Ngati Mutunga, Ngati Rārua, Pākehā). Portrait to come.

2020 Talia Marshall (Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Rārua, Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāti Takihiku).
Due to lockdown restrictions, no portrait was taken.