Māori Novelist and Indigenous Envoy: Writing to the World

Nga mihi.In this address, given on the 5 th of July 2023 at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, I position "The Whale Rider" (1987) as an act of reclamation of Māori and Pacific sovereignty.My sixth book, I traverse the original purākau of Paikea who travelled on a whale from Hawaiki (Raiātea, French Polynesia) to Aotearoa, New Zealand.I then cut cyclically to the geopolitical context of 1986 in New York, USA, where I wrote "The Whale Rider".Te tōrino haere whakamua, whakamuri, I continue the circularity of my narrative by returning to the centre: New Zealand and the Pacific in 2024.I look at the security concerns of the region, the impacts of climate change and the continuing political, economic and cultural instabilities inflicted on the region by the larger, predominating countries, which define the future for everyone in the world of āpōpō -and the resilience required by a younger generation.Finally, I preview my next book, "Metura'a", a sequel to "The Whale Rider", returning to the original origin myth.Tēnā koutou katoa.Keywords Nga mihi (greetings); purākau (origin myth); te tōrino haere whakamua; whakamuri (at the same time that we are going forward; we are returning); āpōpō (tomorrow); tēnā koutou katoa (greetings; again; to all) Kia hora te marino, kia whakapapa pounamu te moana, Kia tere te karohirohi i mua i tou huarahi.May the calm be widespread, may the ocean glisten like greenstone And may the shimmer of sunlight ever dance across your pathway.Ka pine a koe au ki te pine o te aroha Ki te pine e kore nei e waikura e! Hoki hoki tonu mai te wairua o te tau Ki te awhi rei nga ki tenei kiri e!