Moira Wairama
Moira Wairama is a well known New Zealand storyteller, award winning writer, a poet and a registerd school teacher.
As a storyteller, she specialises in bi-lingual tellings of Maori legends and in creating stories around New Zealand events, art works and life experiences. Together with her partner Tony Hopkins, Moira has performed throughout New Zealand as one of the Soul Food Tellers. She has written a number of plays for stage and radio and also writes for children in both Maori and English. Moira, who is Pakeha, has worked part time for many years at Te Ara Whanui Kura Kaupapa Maori where she helped set up the literacy monitoring and ran a support programme for children reading in Maori with specific learning needs. She has three adult children and a growing number of mokopuna (grandchildren).
Moira’s first book Alphabet Art was a collection of poems for children written in collaboration with artist Austin Whincup. Her second book, The Puppet Box, received the Joy Cowley Award in 2006 and was published, with a Maori version, Te Pouaka Karetao, in June 2007. She has a new book due to be released next year. Moira also writes for both the English and Maori School Journals.
As a poet Moira edited and was a contributor for the Pub Poets Anthology 3 and for many years was co-ordinator of the long running Angus Inn Poets Pub. She was a featured poet in the award winning 2001 Fringe show, Po@rt.nz, the art of poetry at Bats Theatre.
Moira is a member of Writers Block an initiative originally started by Taki Rua Productions and now led by well known writer and director Hone Kouka. Her stage play Questions, which looked at the subject of youth suicide, won a 1999 Fringe Best Award. She later adapted it for television, where it received the Qantas Award for Children's/Youth Best Television programme.
Her other plays include Popokorua and Kihikihi for I Spy Children’s Theatre, a play she is currently reworking in Maori, and Te Kauta which won the 2002 Fringe Theatre Award. Te Kauta was later adapted for radio and has been included in the Tokotoko school resource produced for kura kaupapa Maori. Moira's two other radio plays are Toll Calls and NZ Refugee. In 2008 she wrote Whanau means Family, a series of short radio dramas for the 2008 Te Wiki o te Reo Maori.
Together with her partner Tony Hopkins, Moira is co-founder of the Baggage Co-op which has been successfully producing theatre works for over a decade. Their most recent production was Te Haerenga, a journey of identity, which opened the 2010 season at Bats Thetare. See OUR SHOWS for more information.
Moira is currently working on several children's books and a new stage play.
Moira Wairama is a well known New Zealand storyteller, award winning writer, a poet and a registerd school teacher.
As a storyteller, she specialises in bi-lingual tellings of Maori legends and in creating stories around New Zealand events, art works and life experiences. Together with her partner Tony Hopkins, Moira has performed throughout New Zealand as one of the Soul Food Tellers. She has written a number of plays for stage and radio and also writes for children in both Maori and English. Moira, who is Pakeha, has worked part time for many years at Te Ara Whanui Kura Kaupapa Maori where she helped set up the literacy monitoring and ran a support programme for children reading in Maori with specific learning needs. She has three adult children and a growing number of mokopuna (grandchildren).
Moira’s first book Alphabet Art was a collection of poems for children written in collaboration with artist Austin Whincup. Her second book, The Puppet Box, received the Joy Cowley Award in 2006 and was published, with a Maori version, Te Pouaka Karetao, in June 2007. She has a new book due to be released next year. Moira also writes for both the English and Maori School Journals.
As a poet Moira edited and was a contributor for the Pub Poets Anthology 3 and for many years was co-ordinator of the long running Angus Inn Poets Pub. She was a featured poet in the award winning 2001 Fringe show, Po@rt.nz, the art of poetry at Bats Theatre.
Moira is a member of Writers Block an initiative originally started by Taki Rua Productions and now led by well known writer and director Hone Kouka. Her stage play Questions, which looked at the subject of youth suicide, won a 1999 Fringe Best Award. She later adapted it for television, where it received the Qantas Award for Children's/Youth Best Television programme.
Her other plays include Popokorua and Kihikihi for I Spy Children’s Theatre, a play she is currently reworking in Maori, and Te Kauta which won the 2002 Fringe Theatre Award. Te Kauta was later adapted for radio and has been included in the Tokotoko school resource produced for kura kaupapa Maori. Moira's two other radio plays are Toll Calls and NZ Refugee. In 2008 she wrote Whanau means Family, a series of short radio dramas for the 2008 Te Wiki o te Reo Maori.
Together with her partner Tony Hopkins, Moira is co-founder of the Baggage Co-op which has been successfully producing theatre works for over a decade. Their most recent production was Te Haerenga, a journey of identity, which opened the 2010 season at Bats Thetare. See OUR SHOWS for more information.
Moira is currently working on several children's books and a new stage play.