Alumni’s New Zealand Dreams

In November 2005, Fulbright New Zealand celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Fulbright Programme's founder, Senator J. William Fulbright, by holding a public lecture by two high profile Fulbright alumni - Samoan filmmaker Sima Urale and Māori author Witi Ihimaera. In the lecture, entitled New Zealand Dreams, Pacific Destinies, the pair spoke about their recent Fulbright experiences in the US.

Fulbright alumni Sima Urale (left) and Witi Ihimaera (right)

As the inaugural recipient of the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency, Sima Urale spent three months of 2004 at the University of Hawai'i's Mānoa campus working on the script for her debut feature film Moana.

Sima thanked the staff of Fulbright New Zealand and the University of Hawai'i who were overwhelmingly hospitable during her trip.

"When I got to Hawai'i the lovely people had three offices waiting for me!" Sima recalled. "They showed me the offices and at the end I said 'You know what, I have never worked in an office in my life and I never want to. All my work and all my creative stuff I do at home.'"

While her own work habits may have differed from those of the university's academics, the experience was an eye-opener for Sima. "It was really amazing to learn what academics do," she said. "I never knew what a scholar was. I didn't know what an academic was. I now know that and I'm so happy for them, but I'm glad I don't do that stuff!"

As well as focussing on her scriptwriting project, Sima found time to engage in the local community. An opportunity to teach her craft to young children provided one of the trip's most memorable experiences.

"Probably the most heartfelt experience for me was having the opportunity to visit Wai'anae, an area where a lot of indigenous Hawai'ians live that is quite poor. A Hawai'ian friend of mine was trying to start up a little film school course with some young Hawai'ian children, so for two weeks solid I went out to Wai'anae every day and worked with these kids and basically made their first short film ever. That was really an amazing experience for me."

Sima made good progress on her script for Moana while in Hawai'i, but as an artist who professes to work "extremely slowly" at her own pace, she can't foresee the feature being finished for a few years despite having overcome the project's most difficult part.

"I find [writing] the hardest aspect of filmmaking" Sima confessed. "I'm a director and part producer and I attempt to write, but I must say congratulations to Witi for finishing another book. I do admire you, I don't know how you write books."

Witi Ihimaera with US Graduate Student Jessica O'Reilly

Speaking next, Professor Witi Ihimaera recalled his own Fulbright experience, taking up a world literature residency at George Washington University in Washington, DC, earlier in 2005 with the help of a Fulbright Travel Award.

The New Zealand Dreams, Pacific Destinies lecture doubled as a launch for Witi's new novel The Rope of Man (a sequel to his 1973 novel Tangi), which he began writing on his Fulbright trip, and also a children's picture book edition of The Whale Rider.

In a moving address, Witi used the theme of the lecture to explore the identity and achievements of New Zealanders.

Acknowledging that Tangi, The Whale Rider and The Rope of Man had all been written overseas, Witi posed the question, "Who would have known that [The Whale Rider,] a book that was written not in New Zealand but in New York, way back in 1986, would some sixteen years later in 2002 premiere as a film made by Niki Caro and starring a young girl called Keisha Castle-Hughes, who would become the youngest actress ever to be nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actress category?"

As for his new novel, The Rope of Man, "The irony is that this book too was also written from overseas: first of all, from London, in 1970. Second, I began it all again 35 years later in Washington, DC, where I was a Senior Fulbright Fellow at George Washington University at the beginning of this year."

"The novel is very much about our New Zealand dreams and Pacific destinies, and both are reflected in the central image - that great Rope of Man, te taura tāngata, stretching from the beginning of the universe to the universe's end. Everchanging, the Rope is a magnificent icon spiralling from one aeon to the next, charting the history of humankind."

"What are our dreams? What are our destinies? What of ourselves can we weave into the Rope? Can we do this? Of course we can. After all, we are New Zealanders and we can do anything. We ride whales, climb mountains, stomp on the Australians at netball 61-36. We go backwards and forwards between hemispheres, we think outside the circle and sometimes we come up with extraordinary solutions to great world problems. Together we're formidable, fighting back to back against all odds… Today, we're taking New Zealand talent, ingenuity, creativity out into the world."

Witi spoke of his own travels and encounters abroad with "a brilliant New Zealand diaspora", recalling a French friend's claim upon witnessing a gathering of homesick Kiwis that "Alas, being a New Zealander is such an exquisite dilemma."

In response, Witi added that "Being a New Zealander, however, is not only an exquisite dilemma; it's also a proud one. As we travel back and forth, we add to the international inventory and, again, The Rope of Man tries to show the practical accomplishments of all our dreams."

A full transcript of Professor Ihimaera's acclaimed speech is posted on the Fulbright New Zealand website (here). Also on the evening, Peter Dowling of Reed Publishing took the opportunity to launch Witi's two new books and Fulbright New Zealand's Executive Director Mele Wendt presented prizes to the winners of a secondary school creative writing competition held in conjunction with the lecture. Fulbright New Zealand plans to hold two similar lecture events in 2006.