Ariana Tikao is a writer, singer, composer, and leading player of taonga puoro, awarded as a 2020 Arts Laureate by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. Her work explores her Kāi Tahu identity, mana wahine, and often draws upon ancestral kōrero.
Whiti Hereaka’s new novel, Kurangaituku, takes the pūrākau of Hatupatu and the Bird Woman apart like an old dogskin cloak, cutting it into patterns and shapes never seen before. Ariana Tikao reviews.