Master storyteller Witi Ihimaera talks with Jacinta Ruru about Navigating the Stars: Māori Creation Myths, in which he explores Māori history and identity through its mythology.

Witi Ihimaera celebrates 50 years as a published writer in 2022. At the Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival he talks to Prof. Jacinta Ruru about his latest book, Navigating the Stars.

This work of historical non-fiction is an account of Māori creation myths. It is also the book which, after a long career in literature, art, theatre and film, he says he was "born to write."

Hear Witi Ihimaera in conversation with Prof. Jacinta Ruru, recorded in May 2021

Witi Ihimaera:

I would not be happy if my work was just beautiful. It has to be functional. In the case of Navigating The Stars it also has to be instructive. A handbook for the mokopuna as they walk into what I call their ancient futures.

I'm old now, you know. I can inflect the book with the kind of knowledge that I come to at this age. The book is also about good and inclusive governance, it's about treating women with respect and standing up against domestic violence in the story of Hinauri.

It's about establishing protocols by which we can treat each other in this country equally and with justice. It's about understanding the holistic nature of the planet. Conserving plants and fish species and protecting waterways from degradation. It's about holding world leaders to account.

When I was in Korea, I was in this marvellous seminar where the professors said to me, "This is what we must do. We must hold the leaders to account. Large animals should not fight each other because all the grasses beneath their feet will get trampled." Isn't that great?

That's why this book became what it is because I could hear all of these voices - these ancestors who were sitting inside my head. So in the process, Navigating The Stars became far greater than just me and I'm grateful for that.

Rongopai in Waituhi is the Ringatu cathedral of this country. If anything explains or defines me, this meeting house is it. When I sought permission from the photographer, Mr Macduff Everton to publish the photo, I told him that actually, this was what my heart looks like. And in his reply giving his permission he replied, "Well, there won't be any fee for this scan of your heart."

But then this is as good an explanation of the inspiration for Navigating The Stars because the book is actually my written version of the painted meeting house in my valley. It always reminds me to take all my way back to the centre, in my case, Rongopai, to make sure that the taproot of my story goes into this meeting house…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details