Getting to know you: Robert Sullivan
Where is home for you?
At the moment I’m living in Ōamaru on Te Tai o Āraiteuru, which is the ancestral coastline of my father’s people, stretching from the mouth of the Waitaki River to the Ōtākou peninsula at Ōtepoti, Dunedin. My other home is the village of Kāretu in the Bay of Islands, where my mother’s extended family live.
What was the catalyst which began your writing journey?
When just 18, I took an inspirational New Zealand literature course led by esteemed writers and scholars Maualaivao Albert Wendt, Michele Leggott, Murray Edmond and Alex Calder. Albert would invite other amazing writers—such as Hone Tuwhare, Witi Ihimaera, and Patricia Grace—to speak to the students. I suddenly saw that our village, our family stories, had literary value and I could write about them too. I took my poems to my lecturers on a weekly basis, which was fantastic mentoring. I’d share the poems at pub readings in Auckland at least once a week, and I edited the poetry page of the student newspaper. It was a heady, poetry-filled time. Those poems became my first book, Jazz Waiata, published by Auckland University Press.
What is at the heart of who you are as a writer?
I’m writing to an audience in the decolonised future, and so the things I notice about contemporary and historical social issues—which include my family and the quotidian details of my life—will seem strange and interesting to them. They would be astonished to learn about the relationships tangata whenua generally experience with tangata tiriti co-governance since, in their consensus reality, their future generations enjoy marvellous mana-enhancing social interactions and life-affirming wealth. They have a great sense of humour so I have to write for that too.
How long have you been involved with Headland and what is your role?
I have only recently been involved as a member of the Board. I can’t take credit for the wonderful work of the editorial team. I also guest edited a Māori literature special issue of Headland.
What is your best tip/trick for writers (including yourself)?
Always put a sleep between drafts. Let your subconscious work on the text. Always revise.
What is something you wish you could read again for the first time?
The Bone People by Keri Hulme. I read it first as a 17 year old and couldn’t grasp the despair of that novel. But I do remember the word-music. That year I also read Pōtiki by Patricia Grace, also too young really, but again I remember its musicality, the fineness of composition, and the measure of thought and feeling.
What’s a piece of literature that is widely loved or critically acclaimed but you didn’t enjoy?
The English language translations of the various chanted and sung poems in the multi-volume Ngā Moteatea. It is better to read poems in their original language. The Māori language texts are amazing with their vitality, and direct emotions, and the sound qualities, the subtle measure of numerically vowel-driven poetics. They connect with the land, the water, the ocean, the sky—as humanly and more than humanly possible in Aotearoa.
