Poetry giving mana to young Māori poets

A new poetry collective has made waves by performing at a local stand-up poetry event.

The group called AUT Toikupu, which was formed this year by students at the university, is made up of Māori students.

The name comes from toi meaning to perform and kupu meaning words.

Musician Hayden Joe who is involved in the collective (Ngati Whatua Ki Orakei/ Te Kawaerau a Maki) said that the group came out of a shared love of poetry.

“I found that a lot of people in our circle gravitated more towards the poetry kind of side with each one of us having special talents with spoken pieces.

“We decided that this would be great since we would be the face of AUT poetry.”

The group has a strong connection to their whakapapa with many of their pieces touching on themes such as colonialisation and featuring the use of Te Reo in their work.

Poet Ivy Lyden-Hancy (Te Rawawa/ Ngati Wairere) said that the group is heavily influenced by their whakapapa.

“So being Māori influences a lot of our writing because we are all Māori, and we want to be able to connect with our tupuna and kupu but also be able to write stories for our people.”

Joe added “There’s a lot that the general public doesn’t know for example Te Tiriti and it’s up to me to relay that to the people.”

The group found themselves invited to perform as a feature at Stand-Up Poetry, an open mic event which allows members of the public to perform their poems.

The event ,which is run by Action Education, also runs Word the Front Line, which is an inter high school slam poetry competition.

Members of the poetry collective got their start performing at the competition.

AUT Toikupu meets on Wednesday’s 11 am- 2 pm in WB416 in the city campus.

WATCH: Extended Interview with AUT Toikupu’s Hayden Joe.