Hone Tuwhare

Hone Tuwhare (21 October 1922 – 16 January 2008) was a noted New Zealand poet of Māori ancestry. He is closely associated with The Catlins in the Otago region of New Zealand, where he lived for the latter part of his life.

Hone Tuwhare was born in Kaikohe, Northland, into the Ngapuhi tribe (hapu Ngati Korokoro, Ngati Tautahi, Te Popoto, Uri-o-hau). Following the death of his mother, his family shifted to Auckland, where Hone attended primary schools in Avondale, Mangere and Ponsonby. He apprenticed as a boilermaker with the New Zealand Railways and took night classes in Mathematics, Trade Drawing and Trade Theory at Seddon Memorial Technical College (1939–41) and Otahuhu College (1941). Tuwhare spoke Māori until he was about 9, and his father, an accomplished orator and storyteller, encouraged his son’s interest in the written and spoken word, especially in the rhythms and imagery of the Old Testament.

In July 2010 The Hone Tuwhare Charitable trust was formed in honour of Hone Tuwhare. Their goal is: "To inspire people through the preservation, promotion, and celebration of Hone’s legacy".

Starting in 1939, Tuwhare, encouraged by fellow poet R.A.K. Mason, began to write while working as an apprentice at the Otahuhu Railway Workshops.

In 1956, Tuwhare started writing seriously after resigning from a local branch of the Communist party. His first, and arguably best known work, No Ordinary Sun, was published in 1964 to widespread acclaim and subsequently reprinted ten times over the next thirty years, becoming one of the most widely read individual collections of poetry in New Zealand history.

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