Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall

Kōtuku examined the ways in which Coast Salish women act as repositories of Indigenous knowledge, culture, and experiences through their life writing.

PhD awarded 2026

Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttal. (Photo by Ebony Lamb.)

Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, W̱SÁNEĆ) is a multidisciplinary artist and author from Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Her first book, Tauhou (2022/23), won the 2020 Adam Foundation Award and was shortlisted for the 2024 Amazon Canada First Novel Award.

Kōtuku's PhD thesis was an exploration of the connections between the life writings of Coast Salish women authors. She included the holistic history and context of three authors: Lee Maracle (Stó:lō, Tsleil-Waututh, Métis), Terese Marie Mailhot (Seabird Island Band), and Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe (Upper Skagit, Nooksack) in her close readings. By using multiple Indigenous methodologies like Dian Million’s 'Felt Theory' (Tanana Athabascan) and Q’um Q’um Xiiem/Jo-ann Archibald’s 'Storywork' (Stó:lō, St’at’imc), alongside the principles of whakapapa, Kōtuku was able to illustrate the way Coast Salish women use their writing about their bodies to tell their own stories, as well as the wider histories of their communities and people.

This research allowed Kōtuku to write her own collection of essays about Indigeneity, diaspora, finding home, Queerness, and neurodivergence. These essays are grounded in Kōtuku's first visits home to Coast Salish territory after 15 years of living in Aotearoa and the healing which followed.

Tauhou Aotearoa Edition from Te Herenga Waka University Press

The Varsity: The fantastical geographies of Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall

Miramachi Reader: review of Tauhou