Speakers

Step into the brilliant world of Catherine Chidgey, a rockstar of New Zealand literature. Her latest novel, The Book of Guilt, ignited an international bidding war and has become a runaway bestseller. Since her debut in 1998, Chidgey has won numerous awards, including the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction—twice, a first in Aotearoa’s literary history.

Her work is known for its rich language, unforgettable characters, and gripping plots. In this special keynote event, she reflects on her writing life and the haunting, often humorous world of The Book of Guilt.

Keynote: An Evening with Catherine Chidgey
Saturday 13 September | 6.30pm - 8pm
Puke Ariki Museum Foyer
$20
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Inga-Wiktoria Påve is a Northern Sámi visual artist from Swedish Sápmi. Her work tells cultural stories through themes of identity, tradition, and memory.

Trained in ancestral crafts, she has gained wide recognition, including Riddu Riđđu’s Young Artist award, Ábadakone at Canada’s National Gallery, and a Nordic Council book award nomination.

Indigenising Place: Honouring Knowing, Being, and Making alongside First Peoples
Saturday 13 September | 12pm - 1.30pm
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Cinema
$15 per ticket, limited spaces available
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Stories inside: Pictures: A Sámi Illustration Workshop
Saturday 13 September | 3.30pm - 5pm
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Cinema
$15 per ticket, limited spaces available
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Kaye-Maree Dunn, co-founder of Making Everything Achievable, is a renowned Māori tech entrepreneur. She leads Āhau NZ and Indigital Blockchain and is a Sir Edmund Hillary Fellow.

With 24+ years in Māori and community development, she was named Māori Entrepreneur of the Year in 2023 for her transformative economic leadership.

Keynote: Language as Living with Kaye-Maree Dunn
Thursday 11 September | 6pm - 7pm
Puke Ariki Museum Foyer
$20 per ticket, limited spaces available
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Step into the wild with Naomi Arnold, critically acclaimed author and award-winning journalist, as she shares stories from her latest book, Northbound—a lyrical and honest account of walking Te Araroa, New Zealand’s longest trail, from Bluff to Cape Reinga. Over nine months on foot, Naomi traverses both physical landscapes and emotional terrain, weaving reflections on nature, science, solitude, and the art of storytelling.

Keynote: Writing the Trail: Northbound with Naomi Arnold 
Friday 12 September | 6pm - 7pm
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Cinema
$20 per ticket, limited spaces available
or $45 per opening night bundle
Book now

Dr Mahutoa ‘Pasha’ Clothier is part of the Moana diaspora with whakapapa to Tahiti, Hitiaurevareva (Pitcairn) and Te Wai Pounamu.

For twenty years, they worked collaboratively with tangata whenua as artist, organiser and educator, presenting creative works in the fields of art-science, cultural bridging and environment in twenty-two countries.

Seniors Special: Knowledge as Dimensional with Pasha Clothier
Friday 12 September | 10am
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Learning Studio
Free event
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James Bridle is a writer, artist, and technologist. Their artworks have been commissioned by galleries and institutions and exhibited worldwide and on the internet.

Their writing has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Wired, the Atlantic, the New Statesman, the Guardian, and the Financial Times. They are the author of 'New Dark Age' (2018) and 'Ways of Being' (2022), and they wrote and presented "New Ways of Seeing" for BBC Radio 4 in 2019. Their work can be found at http://jamesbridle.com.

Keynote: Rethinking Ecological Intelligence with James Bridle (livestream)
Sunday 14 September | 3.30pm - 4.30pm
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre Cinema
$15 per ticket, limited spaces available
or $20 per bundle with Machine Intelligence in Action: A Tech-shop workshop.
Book now

In 2022 WharehokaSmith (Taranaki, Te Atiawa, Ngā Ruahine) achieved an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) based upon "Te Tiriti o Waitangi" with New Plymouth District Council (NPDC). 

Appropriately, it hangs at the entrance to his exhibition, Nekenekehia Tukua asserting his enduring Kaitiakitanga with the Toi and NPDC Kaipupuri Status (Responsibility to protect and preserve). Seen as a game changing template for institutional relationships with Toi Māori Practitioners.

Indigenising Place: Honouring Knowing, Being, and Making alongside First Peoples
Saturday 13 September | 12pm - 1.30pm
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Cinema
$15 per ticket, limited spaces available
Book now

Clarence Slockee, a Salt-Water Cudgenburra/Bundjalung man and Founding Director of Jiwah, integrates traditional knowledge into environmental and cultural design.

Through global collaboration, performance, and education, he reconnects people with Country, showcasing First Nations wisdom in ecology, balance, and sustainability—vital for today’s world.

Indigenising Place: Honouring Knowing, Being, and Making alongside First Peoples
Saturday 13 September | 12pm - 1.30pm
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Cinema
$15 per ticket, limited spaces available
Book now

Kiran Dass is a journalist and director of WORD Christchurch, this event in conversation with Naomi Arnold offers a rare encounter with one of Aotearoa’s most thoughtful nature writers.

Keynote: Writing the Trail: Northbound with Naomi Arnold 
Friday 12 September | 6pm - 7pm
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Cinema
$20 per ticket, limited spaces available
or $45 per opening night bundle
Book now

Michael Bennett's debut book, In Dark Places, the result of his decade-long work on the fight for justice for Teina Pora, won Best Non-Fiction at the Ngaio Marsh Awards. His debut novel, Better the Blood is the only crime thriller to be finalist for the Jann Medlicott Fiction Award at the Ockhams. It won the Ngaio for Best First Novel, making Michael the only author to win for both fiction and non-fiction. His third novel, Carved In Blood was published in April this year. Don’t miss this personal insight into what influences one of New Zealand’s most compelling crime writers to create stories.

Michael Bennett: Why do Storytellers tell Stories?
Sunday 14 September | 2pm - 3pm
Puke Ariki Library Community Lounge
Free event
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The Lalaga Youth Ambassadors are a collective of Taranaki-based young creatives that has emerged as an integral part of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery's Lalaga Project.

Rooted in their connections to Pasifika cultures and community, they explore collaboration, heritage arts, interdisciplinary practice and the role youth play in shaping inclusive, diverse communities.

Through mentorship, creative development, and partnerships with cultural and educational institutions, they are shaping new models of engagement—amplifying youth voices and expanding possibilities for how the arts can enrich communities and careers, both within and beyond the cultural sector.

Opening Night with the Creatives 
Friday 12 September | 7pm - 9pm
Puke Ariki Museum Foyer
$35 per ticket, limited spaces available
or $45 per opening night bundle
Book now

Architect, mentor, and cultural leader Elisapeta Heta is Principal at Waka Māia, guiding Jasmax toward bicultural design. With whakapapa and design thinking deeply connected, her work reflects integrity, generosity, and place.

She champions indigenous voices, mentors future designers, and drives intergenerational change through architecture, governance, and strategic cultural advocacy.

Indigenising Place: Honouring Knowing, Being, and Making alongside First Peoples
Saturday 13 September | 12pm - 1.30pm
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Cinema
$15 per ticket, limited spaces available
Book now

Kirsty is a published author and primary school teacher with a love of sharing stories, especially with her husband and two children. She has been writing her whole life, and her books have won the Joy Cowley award and two Storylines Notable Book awards, for which she is now a judge.

Story Telling under the Star Waka
Saturday 13 September | 2pm - 2.30pm
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre
Free event
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Mikaela Nyman is from the autonomous, demilitarised Åland Islands in Finland and lives in Taranaki. Her critically acclaimed climate fiction novel SADO was published by Te Herenga Waka University Press in 2020. Her two poetry collections in Swedish were nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2020 and 2024 respectively.

Her first poetry collection in English, The Anatomy of Sand (THWUP, 2025), connects Taranaki and Finland and asks us to pay attention to how our present-day actions will impact future ecological events. In 2024, she was the Robert Burns Fellow.

Fiction for Survival: Storytelling in the Face of Ecological Crisis
Sunday 14 September | 11.30am - 12.30pm
Puke Ariki Library Community Lounge
Free event
Book now

Clare Moleta was born in Aotearoa and raised on Whadjuk Noongar Country in Western Australia. She has lived in Pōneke/Wellington since 2005. Her first novel, Unsheltered (Scribner 2021) follows a mother’s search for her lost daughter across a climate-ravaged continent.

It was longlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction and the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award. In 2024 it was included in The Conversation’s ‘20 best New Zealand books of the 21st century’.

Fiction for Survival: Storytelling in the Face of Ecological Crisis
Sunday 14 September | 11.30am - 12.30pm
Puke Ariki Library Community Lounge
Free event
Book now

Glenn Martin has 10+ years’ experience in the cultural heritage and education sectors, working in collection roles at the National Army Museum, Auckland’s MOTAT, and archaeological field work in Greece. His role at Puke Ariki is Archive Curator, where he looks after historical records in various formats.

Story Worlds: Threads from the Museum Collection
Saturday 13 September | 11am - 12pm
Puke Ariki Library Taranaki Research Centre
$5 per ticket, limited spaces available
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Natasha McKinney is the Pictorial Curator at Puke Ariki, and works with the photographic and art collections. Her favourite part of curating is bringing lesser-known histories to the fore in visually interesting ways. She curated Puke Ariki’s ‘Home Work’ exhibition of Taranaki art in 2024.

Story Worlds: Threads from the Museum Collection
Saturday 13 September | 11am - 12pm
Puke Ariki Library Taranaki Research Centre
$5 per ticket, limited spaces available
Book now

Ankit Mishra is an AI technologist, creative producer, and filmmaker working across Aotearoa, India, and Australia. Trained in engineering and driven by a poetic curiosity for tech, he leads media and arts teams and serves on the Create NSW Board. His practice blends storytelling and strategy to explore the ethical, collaborative futures of AI.

Machine Intelligence in Action: A Tech-shop Inspired by James Bridle
Sunday 14 September | 1pm - 3pm
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Learning Studio
$10 per ticket, limited spaces available
or $20 per bundle with Rethinking Ecological Intelligences with James Bridle event
Book now

Born in Ōtautahi and raised in Taranaki, Holly is a performer, acting coach, agent, director, maker of theatre and films, and writer.

Holly has written in various forms across her whirlwind creative life, including plays and short films, and in 2024 began a journey to share her poetry in slam. She was the winner of the 2024 Winter Fest Poetry Slam and the 2025 WOMAD poetry slam, as well as a finalist in the NZ National Poetry Slam.

Creatively inspired by all art forms, she seeks to combine the innate lyrical truths of poetry with a love of rhythm, the modern world experience, and the playful possibilities of words.

Opening Night with the Creatives 
Friday 12 September | 7pm - 9pm
Puke Ariki Museum Foyer
$35 per ticket, limited spaces available
or $45 per opening night bundle
Book now

Hamish Cameron is a renowned Taranaki-based multi-instrumentalist known for his genre-blurring soundscapes and magnetic live energy.

Performing with his stellar band, he will debut new, soon-to-be-released material at Story Worlds. 

Expect an immersive set blending folk, experimental pop, and layered harmonies from one of Aotearoa’s most exciting emerging acts.

Opening Night with the Creatives 
Friday 12 September | 7pm - 9pm
Puke Ariki Museum Foyer
$35 per ticket, limited spaces available
or $45 per opening night bundle
Book now

Tim Jones lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington. He was awarded the NZSA Peter & Dianne Beatson Fellowship in 2022. His recent books include climate fiction novel Emergency Weather (The Cuba Press, 2023). His new poetry collection Dracula in the Colonies will be published by The Cuba Press in 2025.

Fiction for Survival: Storytelling in the Face of Ecological Crisis
Sunday 14 September | 11.30am - 12.30pm
Puke Ariki Library Community Lounge
Free event
Book now