Going West Books & Writers Festival Programme 2009

Friday Night - 11 September 2009

7.00pm	Powhiri
7.30 - 7.50pm	The Curnow reader This year's Curnow reader is Wystan Curnow. A poet, provocative critic and independent curator, Wystan has been a positive contributor to NZ culture over the past four decades. Son of poet Allen Curnow, he was made a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit in recognition of his contribution to art and literature. Wystan's poetry is described as being characterised by understatement and wry humour. 'The Oxford Companion to NZ Literature' says, 'He revels in the incongruities and ambiguities of language'. 'Modern Colours' is Wystan's most recent collection. This annual session is named in honour of the late Allen Curnow. Our continuing thanks to Jeni Curnow.
7.50 - 8.20pm	By, buy, bye the book Te Radar, TV star, satirist, amateur historian and noveau-Westie, shines his very particular light on the theme of the weekend. And we've no idea which hat he'll be wearing on the night. Te Radar has become a household name with TV shows like 'Off The Radar' and 'Homegrown', his columns in the NZ Herald and regular spots on National Radio. His touring show Te Radar's 'Eating the Dog', which won the Best Local Show 2009 at the NZ International Comedy Festival, features in the Going West programme on Saturday night.
8.30pm	North:South Going West is proud to present the world premiere of 'North:South'. Inspired by Glenn Colquhoun's epic poetry cycle of the same name, where the gods and goddesses of Maori and Celtic mythology meet, clash and fall in love. The poet, and the combined musical might of Richard Nunns (taonga puoro practitioner) and Bob Bickerton (celtic musician) bring this riotous tale to life. Mayhem ensues as much between the three rogue performers as in their stories. Taking you on a rich and varied journey through the ancestral annals of Ireland and Aotearoa - 'North:South' promises to be much more than a poetry reading.
9.30pm	Supper

Saturday - 12 September 2009

9.00 - 9.30am	Coffee
9.30 - 10.15am	The Godwits fly In 2007, bar-tailed godwits hit the headlines when satellite tagging confirmed they'd made non-stop 10,200-kilometre flights between NZ and northern China. Later that year came confirmation that these same godwits returned from Alaska to NZ in a direct flight of more than 11,000 kilometres - setting a new world record. Respected godwit expert and manager of the Miranda Shorebird Centre, Keith Woodley's upcoming book 'Godwits: Long-haul champions', explores these birds and their miraculous migrations. Born again birder Steve Braunias ('How to Watch a Bird') interviews Keith about why and how they do it.
10.15 - 11.00am	From Zeus to Seuss: Origins of Stories Brian Boyd, distinguished professor of English, chats with writer Iain Sharp about why we tell stories. His new book On the 'Origins of Stories', published to coincide with Darwin's bicentennial and the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species, explores the evolutionary origins of art and storytelling. Boyd turns an evolutionary lens on how art grows out of our impulse for play, on tales from Homer's 'Odyssey' to Dr Seuss' 'Horton Hears a Who'!, and on how storytelling offers tangible advantages for human survival.
11.00 - 11.15am	Morning Tea
11.15 -11.30am	'Word-shapes on paper' - Kevin Ireland reads Poet, novelist, raconteur, fisherman, OBE - Kevin Ireland defies any neat categories, and inspires with the scope of his contribution to NZ letters. A regular at the festival in the early days, he featured with Maurice Shadbolt and Dick Scott in our first ever year. Going West is delighted to welcome him back to read from his work.
11.30 - 12.30pm	Reading begins at home 'The book is a humanising force,' said Dorothy Butler, whose very name is synonymous with children's books and a passion for literacy and reading. 'A force which has the potential to rescue children from lives of mediocrity, to offer them insight and pleasure, to lead them to wonder, to laugh and to care.' An international award-winning authority on children's books, author, and long-time Karekare resident, Dorothy has recently published the long-awaited second volume of her memoirs, All this and a bookshop too. In conversation with young adult writer Kate De Goldi, she reviews her extraordinary life and shares the lessons she's learned along the way.
12.30 - 1.00pm	Strange Meetings Harry Ricketts, poet, writer and lecturer, has been working for the last seven years on 'Strange Meetings: The Lives and Deaths of the War Poets'. His book is arranged around meetings between a dozen WW1 poets. Some of the meetings are real: Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon having breakfast in July 1914, Sassoon and Wilfred Owen meeting at Craiglockhart Hospital in 1917. Some are more imaginative: Edward Thomas reviewing Brooke's posthumously published poems in 1915. Harry shares a selection of these 'meetings' and discusses his long journey in creating the work.
1.00 - 2.00pm	Lunch
2.00 - 5.30pm	Westside Forever - An afternoon celebrating Waitakere - FREE
2.00-3.00pm	All quiet on the Western front? As Waitakere looks, with some hesitation, to a glorious future in Greater Auckland, we are, ironically, replete with books about the West. The City commissioned WEST - the history of Waitakere to commemorate 20 years of Waitakere City. It was taken from concept to publication by Ruth Kerr, and edited by Ruth and Finlay MacDonald. The editors discuss the book and all it celebrates - with Simon Prast reading excerpts. Rod Oram will chair, offering insights into the future of the West, inspired by his recent research for the Royal Commission into Auckland Governance.
3.15 - 3.30pm	Vikings of the Antipodes No beach is more instantly recognisable than Piha, and no celebration of the spirit of the West would be complete without mention of it. Sandra Coney introduces her new book 'Piha - Guardians of the Iron Sands', tracing the first 75 years of the Piha Surf Life Saving Club and its 'proud tradition of (volunteer) guards as tough as its surf'.
3.30 - 3.45pm	Afternoon tea
3.45 - 4.30pm	Titirangi tatlers Although quite different in style, the first novels of Lyn Loates and Michele Powles,'Butterscotch' and 'Weathered Bones' respectively, draw on a real life characters and events from NZ's past. 'Butterscotch' has the 1954 Parker Hulme murder at its core; Weathered Bones was inspired by our first keeper of a permanent lighthouse, Mary Jane Bennett. Both feature otherworldly elements, unresolved violent incidents in the past that echo into the future, and contemporary women struggling towards wholeness. Titirangi locals Lyn and Michele, chat about novel writing and their new books with critic David Larsen.
4.30 - 5.30pm	The slings and arrows of Outrageous Fortune Louder and prouder than ever 'Outrageous Fortune' is back for a fifth season, and may well be an apposite farewell to 'our town' as we are absorbed into a greater Auckland. Could this TV show be made anywhere else but in Waitakere? The creators, James Griffin and Rachel Lang, and actor Robyn Malcolm - 'Cheryl', of West Auckland's very own hit TV show get together for a pow wow. They're joined by chair Simon Prast, himself no stranger to great TV.
5.30pm	The Iron-Bound Coast - book launch Local publisher Oratia Media is pleased to launch the third title of its Libro International book list - 'The Iron-Bound Coast: Karekare in the Early Years'. This hardback edition has been a long time in the making - its editor, Mayor Bob Harvey, received the handwritten manuscript from author Wallace Badham not long before his death in 2001. This wry and witty history tells tales of the rugged west coast up until World War II, interspersed with dozens of never-before-published photos. Bob Harvey will talk, and wine and nibbles will be served - all welcome.
8.00pm	Eating the Dog - Te Radar

Sunday - 13 September 2009

9.30 - 10.00am	Coffee
10.00 - 11.00am	Dick does the West The thinking man's Aunt Daisy, Richard Till has a passion for the food many of us grew up on. 'Chefs get a disproportionate amount of attention on television and it's time people spoke up for our mothers and the food they raised us on', says the star of TV show 'Kiwi Kitchen'. In the style of his hugely popular comic cooking shows 'Dick Does Dinner' and 'Just Dick it', Richard will whip up some kiwi tucker. He'll also talk about championing the food we were raised on, and his new recipe book 'Richard Till Makes It Easy'.
11.00 - 11.45am	Two poets - Bill and Harry Join old friends, Bill Manhire and Harry Ricketts as they chat about poetry and their lives in letters. Renowned poets, Bill and Harry are also colleagues at the International Institute of Modern Letters, centre for Creative Writing at Victoria University. The centre has had a major influence on NZ literature. There they have earned reputations as inspirational teachers who have helped foster some of our leading writing talent. In keeping with Bill's sage advice on what to write, we'll hear some of what they know and a little of what they don't - with a poem or three for good measure.
11.45 - 12.45pm	Two worlds collide Leading anthropologist Dame Anne Salmond's new book 'Aphrodite's Island' provides a vivid account of the European discovery of Tahiti. It's the Pacific island of mythic status in Western imaginings about sexuality, the exotic, and the nobility or bestiality of 'savages'. Applying her deep understanding of first contact dynamics, this new book promises rich insights into Tahitian perceptions of the visitors while illuminating the full extent of European fascination with Tahiti. If reviews of Anne's last award-winning book, 'The Trial of the Cannibal Dog', are anything to go by, we're in for another yarn so ripping it reads like fiction. Anne talks with Sam Elworthy, publisher at Auckland University Press.
12.45 - 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30 - 2.15pm	Make it emptier That was the instruction given to Ralph Hotere and Bill Culbert when they were commissioned to create a work in the five-storey atrium at Te Papa. The work of these renowned artists, and long time creative friends, has recently been the subject of two major illustrated books - 'Hotere' (2008), and 'Bill Culbert: Making Light Work' (2009). Writer, curator and critic Ian Wedde is closely acquainted with both artists as author of the Culbert book and as the editor of Ralph Hotere: Black Light (2000), where he also explored the artists' exceptional friendship. Ian will investigate the ideas and practices of both men and the contribution these new books make to our understanding of their work. Introduction by Peter Simpson.
2.15 - 3.00pm	Digital, mobile, global - The 21st-century book The digital era is finally catching up with the centuries-old technology that is the printed word, bringing a myriad of new opportunities for books and their content. Whether accessed via the Internet, digital reading devices like Amazon's Kindle or mobile phones, the written word no longer requires paper. What does this mean for the future of reading and publishing? In what is definitely not a hand-wringing session, digital enthusiasts and book lovers Martin Taylor (director, NZ Digital Forum), Peter Dowling (publisher, Oratia Media) and Helen Baxter (technology commentator, Mohawk Media) talk about the myriad ways of accessing text in the 21st century, and demonstrate some of these new technologies.
3.00 - 3.45pm	No question about it Kate De Goldi's latest novel 'The 10pm Question' won the 2009 NZ Post's Young Adult Fiction and its Book of the Year awards. The judges predict that it will become an enduring classic. The book was unusually, and deservedly, also shortlisted for the fiction award in this year's Montana Book Awards. Kate gets together with reviewer David Larsen to chat about her writing, 'crossover' fiction, appealing to readers of all ages, and the fine line she sometimes crosses between adult and children's fiction.
3.45 - 4.00pm	Afternoon tea
4.00 - 5.00pm	Panther Rapp Members of the Polynesian Panther Party, Will 'Ilolahia and Dr Melani Anae (editor of book 'Polynesian Panthers), rap about the struggle for Polynesian rights'. Founded in the 70s to fight the inequalities facing Pacific Islanders and Maori, it was inspired by the efforts of the US Black Panther Party and their struggle against racism and oppression. Together with special guest Emory Douglas of the Black Panthers, and chair Reverend Mua Strickson-Pua, they'll reflect on the party's challenges, successes and its legacy. (Emory Douglas was brought here as part of the Elam Artist in Residence Programme, University of Auckland.)
5.00 - 5.45pm	Talkback Exceptionally, for a first poetry collection, Selina Tusitala Marsh's book 'Fast Talking PI' made the Top 5 NZ Best Seller List shortly after publication. The poem of the same name is already a classic. This writer, fast talker and expert in Pacific Island poetry will be joined by friend and fellow poet Serie Barford, to discuss what it means to live up to her name - Tusitala, teller of tales. They'll explore her influences and her history - with a healthy dose of performance poetry, to live music by Tim Page, thrown into the mix.
5.45pm	Bar opens
6.00 - 6.45pm	Give peace a chance As New Zealanders we're rightly proud of our 'no nukes' stance. Some of our leading artists hugely influenced our consciousness of the nuclear issues that have come to shape our national identity. This year we close the festival with a celebration of some of their anti-nuclear work. First performed in Paris in 1981, 'PACIFIC 3,2,1 ZERO' by percussion performance group From Scratch, is a protest against nuclear testing and waste dumping in the South Pacific. A film of the work was made in collaboration with award-winning director Gregor Nicholas in 1994, and went on to win the Grand Prix at the Cannes/Midem Visual Music Awards. We're delighted to be screening Gregor's recently digitally remastered version, with an introduction by Phil Dadson, founder of From Scratch. Geoff Chapple, writer and also one of the original From Scratch members, will introduce us to 'Blast! Pat Hanly - the painter and his protests'. 'Blast!' was written by Trish Gribben to introduce children to Pat Hanly's anti-nuclear works.

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