Ruby Solly
Phone: 04 463 6854
Email: modernletters@vuw.ac.nz
Ruby co-convenes CREW 260 Māori and Pasifika Creative Writing Workshop | Te Hiringa a Tuhi with Victor Rodger.
About
Dr. Ruby Solly (Kāi Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe) is a writer, taonga pūoro practitioner, artist, and composer. She has been published in America, Australia, Antartica and extensively within Aotearoa. She has published two books of poetry with Te Herenga Waka University Press; Tōku Pāpā (2019) and The Artist, both of which were longlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Ruby has also had essays and academic articles published relating to her work with taonga pūoro, or traditional Māori instruments, and their connection to health and wellbeing both historically and within modern day use.
In early 2024, Ruby received her PhD in public health for her thesis on the use of taonga pūoro within hauora Māori. This work built on her initial masters thesis in the use of taonga pūoro within music therapy in acute mental health. Ruby is an active researcher and kaimahi in the taonga pūoro space including its connections to toi Māori overall including connections to poetry and composition, where she has composed and performed with artists such as the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, as well as performed with artists such as Yo-yo Ma, Whirimako Black, Trinity Roots and Marlon Williams. Ruby is also a writer of waiata in ensembles such as Tararua and Tāmira Pūoro who are both signed to Oro records, the label she manages with fellow taonga pūoro practitioners Alistair Fraser and Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu).
Ruby’s writing is centred within her strong southern Māori idenity and seeks to uplift takatāpui (queer Māori) and tāngata whaiora (those living with mental health conditions). Her most recent book The Artist was described by Robert Sullivan as 'significant and needed' for those with in an interest in innovative poetry, indigenous literature, and Māori literature. Ruby is passionate about how we can use our writing for intergenerational healing and change, and is currently working to transform her PhD thesis into a cross-genre poetic work.
Read more
Te Herenga Waka University Press profile
The Artist: an interview with Ruby Solly (Wellington City Libraries - on youtube)
Ātahu in performance (Soundz Centre for NZ Music - on youtube)
The D List (contributing writer profile)
'Six feet for a single, eight feet for a double' (Ōrongohau | Best New Zealand Poems 2019)
Course information
Read more about CREW 260: Māori and Pasifika Creative Writing | Te Hiringa a Tuhi including timetable and fee information and a downloadable course flier.