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Hiapo: Past and Present in Niuean Barkcloth
"Hiapo" is the word for barkcloth or tapa in the language of Niue. The aim of this book "is to reveal the power of a remarkable art, that until now has been obscure to all but a few specialists" - the painted hiapo of Niue island in central Polynesia.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2005
29 people want to read
About the author
John Puhiatau Pule
7 books11 followersDescribing the beginning of his literary career, Pule explained:
“I just wanted to write about growing up in New Zealand, and about being the youngest of 17 kids and about migration—but I wasn’t sure how to organise ideas, so I just started writing.”
He also described his writing as a means of "decolonizing his mind". His work expresses his experience as a Niuean in New Zealand:
“My heart and my thoughts were always on Niue. But here I was living in Aotearoa on someone else's land. Writing helped change me, painting helped change me. I went back to Niue as often as I could, and I'd weed and clear the graves for my family and friends' families. It's a way of saying I'm back. [...] We go back home [to Niue] with our Nikes and our jeans and we think we know things. But the local people just think we're stupid. They know where all the trees are and the pathways and where the mythologies and the stories live."
Pule's first novel, The Shark that Ate the Sun (Ko E Mago Ne Kai E La), was published in 1992. Burn My Head in Heaven (Tugi e ulu haaku he langi) followed in 2000, and Restless people (Tagata kapakiloi) in 2004.
His published poetry includes Sonnets to Van Gogh and Providence (1982), Flowers after the Sun (1984) and Bond of Time (1985).
In 2000 Pule was the University of Auckland Literary Fellow and in 2002 took up a distinguished visiting writer's residency in the department of English at the University of Hawaii. In 2005 he was awarded an art residency at Roemerapotheke, Basel, Switzerland and in 2004 he was honoured with the prestigious Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.[citation needed]. In the 2012 Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours Pule was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services as an author, poet and painter. He was awarded the Ursula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing at the University of Canterbury in 2013.
“I just wanted to write about growing up in New Zealand, and about being the youngest of 17 kids and about migration—but I wasn’t sure how to organise ideas, so I just started writing.”
He also described his writing as a means of "decolonizing his mind". His work expresses his experience as a Niuean in New Zealand:
“My heart and my thoughts were always on Niue. But here I was living in Aotearoa on someone else's land. Writing helped change me, painting helped change me. I went back to Niue as often as I could, and I'd weed and clear the graves for my family and friends' families. It's a way of saying I'm back. [...] We go back home [to Niue] with our Nikes and our jeans and we think we know things. But the local people just think we're stupid. They know where all the trees are and the pathways and where the mythologies and the stories live."
Pule's first novel, The Shark that Ate the Sun (Ko E Mago Ne Kai E La), was published in 1992. Burn My Head in Heaven (Tugi e ulu haaku he langi) followed in 2000, and Restless people (Tagata kapakiloi) in 2004.
His published poetry includes Sonnets to Van Gogh and Providence (1982), Flowers after the Sun (1984) and Bond of Time (1985).
In 2000 Pule was the University of Auckland Literary Fellow and in 2002 took up a distinguished visiting writer's residency in the department of English at the University of Hawaii. In 2005 he was awarded an art residency at Roemerapotheke, Basel, Switzerland and in 2004 he was honoured with the prestigious Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.[citation needed]. In the 2012 Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours Pule was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services as an author, poet and painter. He was awarded the Ursula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing at the University of Canterbury in 2013.
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