Kete questionnaire: Mat Tait on his award-winning 2023
2023 is proving to be author, illustrator and designer Mat Tait’s year. His book Te Wehenga: The separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku was named the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year. Now it's been awarded the Scholastic New Zealand Award for Best Children’s Book at the PANZ Book Design Awards.
At the NZ Children and Young Adults Book Award, the judges said: “The way that te reo Māori and te reo Pākehā are brought together closely feels like a metaphorical representation of the increasing bilingualism in Aotearoa.” Are you seeing that “increasing bilingualism in Aotearoa?” And what does it mean for you as a writer, illustrator and reader?
I've been with Te Ataarangi as a student and kaiawhina for many years and am now teaching community reo classes so I see the growing interest and desire in the community at large, from Māori, Pakehā and Tauiwi, up close. We don't have enough Kaiwhakaako to meet the demand. So while there is still a way to go, it's very heartening.
Can you tell us about your te reo journey – did you grow up speaking Māori or are you learning as an adult?
I began to learn when I was about 12, encouraged by my father who had begun learning as an adult, and I learned through high school and at university. After that though I let it go for one reason and another until I had a realisation a few years ago that I really needed to go back to the reo and that was when I found Te Ataarangi who I have to thank for releasing it from inside me as something not just academic but something that I could actually speak. I'll always be learning.
As a young person, did you have access to bilingual books?
There wasn't much available back when I was a boy aside from school resources like Te Rangatahi, but the first reo Māori picture book I remember us having as children was Te Kuia me te Pūngāwerewere by Patricia Grace.
What were the books that you loved to read as a young person and how do they continue to inspire you today? I think you’ve had a long-standing love of comic books – a genre some might be a tad dismissive of?
I was a big reader as a kid and at one point I had this fear that people would stop producing books and I would run out of things to read and so it would be up to me to keep the tradition alive - a pretty big ask for a lone child! But yeah, I loved comics (and still do), 2000AD was the big one for me as a boy. They were considered at best rubbish, at worst actively harmful and I was always having them confiscated. Nowadays they're much more accepted as a medium capable of doing great things.
“At one point I had this fear that people would stop producing books and I would run out of things to read and so it would be up to me to keep the tradition alive - a pretty big ask for a lone child!”
You’re based in Motueka which, I think, signals you don’t need to be in one of the main centres to make successful work.
I'm even more remote than Motueka, I live in a little settlement called Mārahau at the southern end of the Abel Tasman National Park, at the end of the road. It's very peaceful and absolutely beautiful and has a fairly tight community. It's really having access to the internet that's allowed me to continue to work out here.
What is your writing and illustrating process like?
Often the most difficult part is beginning, when all you have is a couple of ideas and a blank page and the knowledge of exactly how far there is still to go, so I've found that the best thing to do is just get something down without worrying too much about whether it's any good or not. If I do that then I usually find that the momentum takes care of itself.
What is your work space like – and what’s in it that you consider vital in terms of doing your work and/or helping you to focus?
I live in a very small whare that contains pretty much my entire day to day life; sleeping eating working. A lot of space is taken up by books which I can go to for reference or inspiration or pleasure at any point.
Favourite writing snack or drink?
Coffee and Natural Confectionary Company Dinosaurs.
If you could choose to spend a day with an author or storyteller – anyone from now or in the past – who would you pick and why?
I would have different answers to this question at different times I think, but right now probably [Māori language proponent] Kāterina Mataira so that I could say thanks for sowing the inspiration for Te Wehenga back when I was a boy.
What are you working on now?
Right now I am preparing to do some mural work, one for the Dept. of Conservation, and one with the tamariki at Riuwaka School which is just nearby me.
Any advice for budding young writers and illustrators – and when you’re speaking with young people, what kinds of things do they want to know about your work and books?
The best advice I can give is just mahia te mahi, keep working on your craft even when you're not necessarily feeling inspired, because the inspiration comes through doing the work. If you wait for that feeling, you might be waiting for a long time. Younger children ask very direct questions, like "what's your favourite thing you've done?", and "what's your worst thing?". Very difficult questions to answer! If they're a bit older they often want to know about which tools you use, more practical questions like that.
