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Tina Makereti, New Zealand

The Weltkulturen Museum invites Tina Makereti and Hamish Clayton, two leading emergent writers from New Zealand, to live and work in the Weltkulturen Labor. During this time they have access to the collections and benefit from the expertise of the museum’s research curators. The collections of anthropological artefacts, the museum and its history provide triggers for new texts.

The results of these residencies will be presented in a series of public events during the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Tina Makereti and Hamish Clayton investigate myths surrounding the history of New Zealand, from complimentary perspectives. Tina Makereti rewrites Maori myths. Hamish Clayton rewrites settler myths.

Tina Makareti has a Pakeha father and a Maori mother. She has Ngati Tuwharetoa, Te Ati Awa, Ngati Maniapoto, Irish, Welsh, English and possibly Nordic ancestors.

Tina Makereti’s writing has appeared in a range of literary journals, magazines and anthologies including the NZ Listener, HuiaShort Stories 8, Hue and Cry 4, JAAM 27 and Turbine 08. She won the 2009 Huia Publishers Best Story Award for Best Short Story Written in English, and the 2009 Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing – Non-fiction.

Her first collection of stories, “Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa”, was published in 2010 by Huia Publishers. “Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa” explores a world where mythological characters and stories become part of everyday life.