In 1843 - just three years after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi - 26 people died in The Wairau Incident near Nelson. It was first major confrontation between Maori and Pakeha settlers following the signing. Now, 174 years on, Nelson artist Sally Burton has re-created the moment when a shot was fired, killing a member of Te Rauparaha's family, which in turn led to the death of another 25 people. She's made the figures of the key players out of found wood and draped them in tapa cloth, calling the work Pale History. It opens at the Suter Art Gallery in Nelson on the 4th of November.

For his art, he's lived rough on the streets of Auckland, lived as a pig in a crate, and conducted the waves of the Pacific Ocean. Now Kalisolaite Uhila has been awarded the Creative New Zealand Contemporary Pacific Artist Award for 2017.

The success of the Harry Potter books and films is certainly partly due to the magical stuff - witches and wizards, spells and potions. But it's also undoubtedly a tribute to the old-fashioned English school story.

One of the highest profile art collections in the country is up for auction. Glenn Schaeffer's an American art collector, philanthropist, writer and hotelier who's had a long love affair with New Zealand. Even so, he's parting with works by Kiwi artists including Milan Mrkusich, Julian Dashper, Judy Millar, Darryn George, Ani O'Neill and Lawrence Aberhart.

A young Maori activist trying to reconnect with his family and culture, and a law student who feels stifled by her Greek family, meet in Michalia Arathimos' novel Aukati. Isaiah and Alexia meet after they volunteer to fight the fracking that's devastating the local iwi's land and water.

Father and daughter Peter and Cait O'Connor set up the Teaspoon of Light theatre company in Christchurch after the earthquakes, working with young children in the most quake-affected schools. Lynn Freeman speaks with Peter and Cait ahead of a trip to Mexico for similar work.

Children's book writer and illustrator Donovan Bixley has just been awarded the 2017 Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award from the New Zealand Arts Foundation, and $15,000 dollar gift that goes with it.

Sixteen locally-made short films feature in this year's Top of the South Film Festival in Nelson. Lynn Freeman speaks with two film makers whose work is about to premiere there - Doug Brooks (Sons of 71) and writer, dancer and actor Dawn Marron (Bananaruma).

Actor Chelsie Preston Crayford is currently appearing in the play Red Speedo, which is kicking off Auckland Theatre Company's 25th anniversary season.

November is National Novel Writing Month, where writers sign up to write 50,000 words over the 30 days in November, a goal reached by more than 34, 000 writers internationally last year (though 384,000 signed up). Professor Toni Bruce has published a novel that she started as part of the challenge in 2015, called Terra Ludus, and this year has signed up for the fifth time.