Emerging Māori Writer in Residence
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, 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 will be Dr Pounamu Jade Aikman (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Tarāwhai, Te Arawa, Ngāti Uenukukōpako).
See the full role description and application form on the Current Vacancies page of the University's website when applications open for the 2026 position. Enquiries can be directed at any time 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.
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:
- Mana Pounamu Consulting
- Dr Pounamu Jade Aikman's Road to Harvard (Stuff, 12 July 2021)
2024 Emerging Māori Writer in Residence—Shelley Burne-Field (Sāmoa, Ngati Mutunga, Ngati Rārua, Pākehā)
Ms Burne-Field writes fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry. She comes from Te Matau-a-Māui (Hawke's Bay) and is an alumna of the University of Auckland's Master of Creative Writing, as well as Te Papa Tupu mentoring programme. Her work has appeared in local and international literary journals and anthologies, on Newsroom, E-Tangata, and RNZ.
In 2022 she was awarded a Surrey Hotel residency and was the only New Zealand finalist in that year’s Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her poem 'Another Brown Face' won the Poetry in English category of the 2023 Pikihuia Awards. She has hosted Māori and Pasifika writers' panels at the Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Festival and appeared as a kaituhi at the Central Hawke's Bay Readers and Writers Festival, Between the Lines.
Her first children's book, Brave Kāhu and the Pōrangi Magpie, was published by Allen and Unwin in April 2024. Two upper-middle-grade novels are forthcoming from A&U.
During her three-month residency, Ms Burne-Field worked on a novel set in a future Aotearoa, on an estate built on confiscated land, where the rise of Artificial General Intelligence is reshaping the lives of tangata whenua, Pasifika, and settler communities.
Previous Emerging Māori Writers in Residence
All photos by Robert Cross.
2020 Talia Marshall (Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Rārua, Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāti Takihiku).
Due to lockdown restrictions, no portrait was taken.