Pacific oratory and poetry showcase at Akl Writers Festival

This year at the Auckland Writers Festival, Pacific storytellers will be prominently featured across three dedicated events.

Zech Soakai, a guest curator, aims to celebrate oratory, poetry, and climate storytelling, providing fresh Pacific perspectives within the main programme.

Soakai is proud to offer space for Pacific voices to be highlighted. “I thought really clearly about who are the sorts of people who tend to go to the Writers Festival and who are the ones who are missing out, so I created it from a place that really put my communities at the forefront… the rebels, the community artists, the activators.”

Soakai (Poutasi, Falealili in Sāmoa, Ha'ato’u, Ha'apai in Tonga) says oratory storytelling is vital to many Pacific cultures.

“We can go to our churches, we can go to White Sunday, we can go to our kona’i, there is always going to be someone in our families and our villages who practices and shows what it looks like to be an orator.”

Soakai feels a strong connection to this tradition as a word performer.

“Spoken word is just like a new vehicle for an old ancestral piece of wisdom or knowledge, and that's my hunch as to why a lot of our people tend to go towards spoken word. It's not too unfamiliar and there's still space for us to innovate and create and be our best selves.”

The first event, titled Intersections Across the Moana: Storytellers and their Villages,features a panel discussion with Marina Alefosio, a Sāmoan poet, Dr Nathan Rew, a Papua New Guinea philosopher and activist, and MahMah Timoteo, a Cook Islands teacher and researcher.

“We, as Pacific, don’t just write to represent ourselves,” Soakai says. “We are always carrying our whakapapa with us.”

Listen Zech Soakai's full interview below.

Soakai, who has previously worked as a full-time teacher, comments on the undervaluation of oratory in current education systems.

“They don't do our kids justice and they don't allow our kids to come to school with the full permission to bring all of their knowledge and wisdom from home.”

A fresh approach

Now in its 26th year, the Auckland Writers Festival will include 170 writers and 50 international participants in this year’s programme.

In a statement, Lyndsey Fineran, programming team leader, shares her excitement about building on last year’s success.

“I’m so proud to reveal this year’s ambitious, wide-ranging and creative line-up - that will bring writers from near and far together, and books to life in a whole range of dynamic ways this May,” she says.

Our Culture, Our Climate - Voices from Across the Pacific performed during Auckland Writers Festival 2024. Photo/Auckland Writers Festival

Soakai appreciates the the organisers for embracing various forms of storytelling, which he refers to as “multimodal literacy”.

He says that both Nate [Dr Nathan Rew] and MahMah initially hesitated to participate, feeling they did not qualify as writers. “So I offer up that we're storytellers, we tell stories, whether through our research or in the case of MahMah, who is a content creator.”

The festival will conclude with Saili Matagi - The Winds of Change: A Poetry Showcase, on which continues Soakai’s climate storytelling efforts initiated through the Our Culture, Our Climate initiative last year.

“I brought together seven very brave poets who had something to say about climate change … working with Pop Poets Collective, who are established UK poets, figuring out ‘What are the stories that we need to tell about climate change?’ and Saili Matagi carries the same sort of heart and spirit as last year's kaupapa.

“This is just another opportunity for them to expand on the tales that they began to tell and maybe tell them again, but in a different way.”

The 2025 Auckland Writers Festival lineup includes global thinkers and bestsellers. Photo/Supplied

Event details

Intersections Across the Moana: Storytellers and their Villages

Friday 15 May, 1-2pm, Limelight Room, Aotea Centre

Tickets from $13-$29.50

Tell the Tale, Win the Crowd

Friday, 16 May, 7-8pm, Hunua Room, Aotea Centre

Free admission

Saili Matagi - The Wind of Change: A Poetry Showcase

Sunday, 18 May, 2.30-3.30pm, Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre

Free admission