Potiki, Brian
IN BRIEF
Brian Potiki is a poet, playwright, scriptwriter, songwriter and performer. His poems have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, and Potiki has toured extensively, performing and running workshops as The Travelling Tuataras with his partner, Jill Walker. He uses songs and dramatisations to bring his performances to life, as well as stories about Maui.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Potiki, Brian (1953 - ) is a poet and playwright. He is also an experienced scriptwriter, songwriter and performer. Potiki's poems have been published in numerous magazines and in a Hawaiian-based anthology.
Brian Potiki lives near Rotorua. He has toured schools teaching drama and he is a popular member of the Book Councils Writers in Schools programme. Potiki continues to tour extensively, performing and running workshops, often as The Travelling Tuataras with his partner, Jill Walker. He uses songs and dramatisations to bring his performances to life, as well as stories about Maui.
Aotearoa, a book of his collected poems and songs was published in October 2003. He has also worked on a book about the play, 'Maranga Mai', a seminal work of Maori Theatre from 1980-81.
In 2007 Potiki completed a cycle of history plays begun in 1990: Hiroki's Song, Boultbee, A Mutiny Stripped and Matupohue, set in the South Island. They were published as Te Wai Pounamu, Your Music Remembers Me: Four South Island History Plays (Steele Roberts, 2007).
In 2010 Brian Potiki finished writing Hey Maori People, a book about Maori theatre in the 1980's. He is currently writing The Raw Man, a biography of writer Rowley Habib based on their thirty-year-long correspondence.
writers in schools information
Brian Potiki is available for school visits as part of the Book Council's Writers in Schools programme
