Ariana Tikao
Ariana Tikao is a musician, composer and writer whose work explores her Kāi Tahu identity, mana wahine, and ancestral kōrero. She was awarded as a 2020 Arts Laureate by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.
Her writing has appeared in Takahē, Turbine|Kapohau, Tupuranga, and Landfall. She has also contributed poems, chapters, and essays to several books, including the award-winning Bill Hammond: Across the Evening Sky. In 2022, Ariana published her book Mokorua: My Story of Moko Kauae (co-authored by Matt Calman) through Auckland University Press, and also completed her MA in Creative Writing through the International Institute of Modern Letters. In 2023 her book Te Rā: The Māori Sail (illustrated by Mat Tait) was published, and she was an Ursula Bethell writer in residence at the University of Canterbury, where she worked on a collection of poetry inspired by pūrākau attached to local Māori place names.
Ariana is closing our festival with Pepeha | Portal: Poetry of the Peninsula.