From author to audience, memoir panel showcases personal stories in Aotearoa
Hamilton Book Month goers got the opportunity to be inspired by some of New Zealand’s renowned writers at the Memoir panel held August 9, 2024.
Award winning author, Caroline Barron hosted the event with panellists, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, Craig Hoyle, and Emma Wehipeihana.
In preparing her approach to the evening, Barron said she tried “to make this like a dinner party because sometimes talking about memoir is quite heavy subject matter”
Ngahuia spoke about the recent release of her memoir ‘Hine Toa’, a recount on her youth as a working-class māori wahine, advocating for the Women’s and Gay liberation movements in the 1970’s.
Ngahuia made history in 1972 when she was famously denied a visa to visit the United States for the status of her sexuality. She then went on to become the first Māori wahine to earn a doctorate at a New Zealand university, and is now known for her feminist, lesbian and Māori activism.
Ngahuia described herself to be a “Māori girl obsessed with books” explaining that it was not particularly common in the community of her origin in the 1950’s.
Chief director of the Sunday Star Times, Craig Hoyle, discussed his memoir Excommunicated, a multigenerational story about being forced to leave the Exclusive Brethern because of his sexuality.
Hoyle said that his account is one of many generations before him, “There was this compulsion in the family to write everything down as if it was important.” Adding “My story doesn’t begin with me”
He added that his team were in talks about broadcasting his story on television but the ink is yet to dry on the contract. Barron said this was an exciting development.
Wehipeihana serves as a surgical registrar at Middlemore Hospital and is also an author and political commentator. In 2023 she released her debut ‘There is a cure for this’ a moving account on her experience as a Māori doctor during the dark times of the pandemic.
Similar to Hoyle, Wehipeihana expresses her story to be one of many in her whānau, saying “they’re not just mine, they’re my families stories, they’re my daughter’s stories”.
Crowd member Adhirai Prema Maninilavan is new to the city and after attending the panel said she “wished we did more of these kind of events” as an aspiring writer herself.
Tracey Hockey believed the event to be “better than expected” saying it was “led really well” crediting both the panelists and the host.
As Hamilton Book Month reaches its seventeenth year of running, the event continues to connect authors to their audiences. Encouraging the community to appreciate literature in the fast-paced environment of Kirikiriroa.
