Albert Wendt

Occupation: Author, Poet, Painter

Hometown: Aotearoa-Samoa (in my mind and in my heart, culturally it’s one). Vaipe in Apia, Samoa; Auckland, Aotearaoa.

Now living: Auckland, Aotearoa.

Became interested in the arts: When Grandma told me stories. Even though Samoan culture in those days didn’t have many books, my Grandmother and the other elders told us a lot of stories.

Favourite artist/s: Ralph Hotere, Selwyn Muru, and younger Pacific artists such as John Pule and Michel Tuffery. I continue to learn from them.

Favourite songs: Traditional Samoan songs.

Favourite books: I have many. The latest is one I read while travelling through America on a six-week tour - American Holocaust by David E. Stannard.

Favourite pacific food: Umu-cooked taro and palusami, and all seafood.

Favourite tradition: Gatherings where aiga/extended family gets together.

Brief history

Albert Wendt is a pioneering novelist, poet and academic, and the first Pacific Island professor in New Zealand.

He came to New Zealand on a scholarship to attend high school in New Plymouth, where he started writing.

He then studied at Ardmore Teachers College near Auckland and at Victoria University, where he gained an M.A. in History. He became Principal of Samoa College and in 1974 he moved to Fiji where he was Deputy Vice Chancellor and Professor of Pacific literature at the University of the South Pacific.

In 1988 he was appointed Professor of English at the University of Auckland. In 2001 he was made Companion of the Order of New Zealand for his services to literature. In 2004 he was awarded the Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture. Also in 2004, he was appointed to the Citizen’s Chair at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Albert Wendt also has two honorary doctorates, from the University of Burgoyne, France and Victoria University, Wellington.

Albert Wendt has published six novels, four collections of short stories, four collections of poetry, one play, and edited many anthologies of Pacific Literature. He has also written academic essays which have been influential in shaping the thinking about the Pacific and its cultures. His writing has been translated into many languages and is taught throughout the world. Two of his novels have been made into feature films, and two documentaries have been made on his life and work.

Albert talks to Pacific Starmap…

How did you first get into writing?

I have always been interested in telling stories so, when I went to high school in New Plymouth, I started writing, and some of my work was published in school magazines.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m always working on four or five projects at a time.

I have just finished a new novel which is titled The Adventures of Vela and is entirely in verse. It’s about 300 pages long and I’ve spent the last 15-20 years writing it. It will be published by Huia Publishers early next year. This work will be the longest novel in verse to come out of New Zealand and the Pacific.

I’ve also been working on another novel, set in Hawai’i, New Zealand and Samoa, and I haven’t finished the first draft of that yet. For the last 10-15 years I’ve also been writing a sequel to my novel Black Rainbow.

For the past three years I have also been working on my first full-length feature film script. Once I establish my studio here in Auckland, I will begin painting again.

In October I’ll be giving one of the key-note addresses at the Māori Writers Hui in Wellington.

I have retired from academic life which now gives me time to work on many other projects.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given in your career?

It’s not really advice, but I was heavily influenced by the work of Alistair Campbell, Hone Tuwhare and Jacqui Sturm and others working in the 1950’s and 60’s. I modelled my writing on their work. Similarly, my work is now influencing younger writers. So, the best thing Pacific writers can do is to read the work of other indigenous writers in Aotearoa, the Pacific, and the world. Plus, they also have to be dedicated to their writing.

Albert Wendt will feature on Pacific Starmap later this year - so keep an eye out and join our email list to be the first to know when.

Albert Wendt | Brooke Fraser | Nathaniel Lees | Neil Ieremia
Sia Figiel | Sima Urale | Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi

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