Aroha is the first resident since the interruption of Covid-19, to be able to enjoy his full residency with us – he is our 11th writer-in-residence for the year.
Aroha (Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Porou, Niuean), is an award-winning journalist and playwright and a former producer for Māori TV Show Native Affairs. His first play Luncheon won Best Play at the 2015 NZ Script Writing Awards, and his film Home premiered at Toronto’s Imaginative Film Festival and has screened in festivals in Berlin, Moscow and Aotearoa.
His short play, Where You’d Least Expect, has been performed in Auckland and Sydney. He’s a multiple winner at the MPA Magazine Awards for his journalism in both NZ Woman’s Weekly and Woman’s Day and has been a multiple finalist at the Canon and Voyager Media Awards. During his Michael King residency, Aroha will be taking the time to write his play Wahine Purotu, about a Maori man becoming a Southern Belle.
He recently received development funding from the New Zealand Film Commission to write his first feature film about the 2009 police shooting on Auckland’s north western motorway that killed innocent teenager Halatau Naitoko, who was caught in the crossfire.