The revered writer angered New Zealand audiences two decades ago with his play about an ancient woman who has witnessed 160 years of colonialism. Now it is premiering in Australia
Witi Ihimaera was in his 20s when, while sitting in front of the television with his mother, they watched an old Māori woman receive a birthday greeting from Queen Elizabeth. “If I received a telegram from the queen,” his mother said, on the couch beside him, “I would spit on it.”
Now 82, the revered Māori writer was at first inspired by this moment to write a novel about an ancient Māori woman who had lived to see all of their people’s clashes with New Zealand’s colonisers. “I realised writing a novel about a woman who would then be about 150 would take 150 years to write,” he chuckles.
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