Jade Kake talks holiday reads, NZ authors, T-Rexes and her next two books

To say Jade Kake is busy is an understatement. With not one, but two books published in 2023 (while also working in her day job as director and architectural and urban designer at architectural firm Matakohe and as a senior lecturer at AUT) she was in need of a summer holiday — big time.Kake’s two 2023 books couldn’t be more different — her debut novel, Checkerboard Hill tells the story of Ria, a Māori woman raised in Australia who is navigating complex trans-Tasman family dynamics. Also published in 2023 was Rewi:Āta haere, kia tere, a biography of acclaimed and somewhat mysterious architect Rewi Thompson (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Raukawa), which Kake co-authored with architectural journalist Jeremy Hansen. But there’s no rest for the wicked. In 2024 Kake is working on a Māori dictionary of architecture as well as a science fiction novel written in te reo Māori. Kete caught up with Kake after she had returned from a camping holiday on Urupukapuka Island, Te Tai Tokerau.

With two books under your belt in 2023 as well as your architectural work with Matakohe and AUT, how did you find time for writing?

 I have a very disciplined writing schedule! I tend to write on weekends and holidays as it’s difficult to fit in writing on workdays. It helps to have a structure and schedule, and I try to stick to the goals I set for each working session, whether it’s a word count, finishing editing transcriptions or other tasks.

How are you spending summer this year?

So far, I’ve been camping on Urupukapuka Island with my whānau, spent Christmas with my partner’s family and attended the Hoki Mai Cup on Boxing Day (a much-loved annual whānau all-ages competitive games and get-together). Now, I'm just enjoying reading an (almost) excessive number of books (I think I’ve read around 10 since work finished in 2023), ruining my sleep patterns, watching a sci-fi anthology series, and pottering away on some nerdy side projects. 

Are there any New Zealand books on your summer reading list?

This summer so far, I’ve read Ruin by Emma Hislop. On my 'to-read' list are Audition by Pip Adam and You Are My Sunshine and Other Stories by Octavia Cade. A friend lent me The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey, so that’s sitting on my bedside table waiting to be read as well.

Jade Kake in holiday mode on Waiheke with friends Ruby Haazen and Hana Tuwhare. Photo by Nââwié Tutugoro

Which Aotearoa authors inspire you? In terms of the all-time legends and kaumatua of the New Zealand writing scene, that would have to be Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace. I’m also incredibly inspired by the younger voices coming through and becoming established – writers such as Samuel Te Kani, essa may ranapiri, Tayi Tibble, Airana Ngarewa and Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall. We have such a wealth of talent and so many stories waiting to be told, but the market is very small, so we really need to support one another. I try to buy New Zealand novels and poetry collections when they come out and attend events and launches whenever I can. 

Growing up in Australia, did you have much exposure to Aotearoa fiction?

Not really! But I did have a lot of exposure to Australian fiction. I was fortunate to be encouraged in my interest in writing at school, which meant entering writing competitions and attending writing festivals and events. As a kid, I was fortunate to meet legends such as John Marsden, Morris Gleitzman, and Melina Marchetta. Jonathan Harlen was a mentor on a writing programme I was a part of, but I don’t think I realised he was a New Zealand writer at that time.I think seeking out writing by New Zealand particularly Māori and Indigenous authors was something that started happening for me as a young adult. At around 18 or 19 it occurred to me that pretty much all my favourite authors were male and white and that I’d like to do something to change that. I started seeking out Indigenous, non-white, and gender-diverse authors and authors who were women, which opened up my world. I always had an interest in Māori storytelling (whether that’s film or novels or some other format) and I think this naturally expanded once I was living in New Zealand and had greater access.Photo: Jade Kake, author of Checkerboard Hill and Rewi. image by Geoffery Matautia

 How does your work in architecture and urbanism colour your fiction writing? I’m still figuring that out. I’d say how I describe spaces and environments is heavily influenced by my work in architecture — I have an architectural vocabulary and a way of thinking spatially that no doubt influences the way I write. I’m also an avid reader and aspiring writer of science fiction, and an idea I’ve started working on sees architecture and futurescapes more deeply embedded in the project, so maybe that’s where this intersection will come to fruition more fully.

What was your writing experience like with Checkerboard Hill? Te Papa Tupu [a writing incubator for emerging Māori writers] was a life-changing experience, and my writing developed so much through the process of working with my mentor, Simon Minto, and by participating in workshops and events as part of our Te Papa Tupu cohort. Post Te Papa Tupu, working with Huia Publishers was straightforward — I worked mostly with Eboni Waitere, the publisher, and Daisy Coles, who edited my manuscript. We had a few rounds of edits which I aimed to be responsive to, an opportunity for feedback on cover development, as well as the opportunity to feed into the marketing plan (working with Claudia Palmer and Jen Hussey). It’s been great working with a team that invites author input and is receptive to our ideas, but mostly I’ve tried not to influence things too much and just trust the team and the process.The Emerging Māori Writers Residency I completed at the Michael King Writers Centre in 2019 was my first ever residency. It was an awesome experience, and such a privilege to have the time and space to dedicate to what was the beginnings of Checkerboard Hill that I used to apply for Te Papa Tupu. Now I have a few more publications under my belt, I’m planning to apply for residencies targeted at ‘mid-career’ or established writers, and hopefully I’ll be successful in being selected for one of those. I’d love to do a longer international residency, but it's a challenge taking that much time off with my business and my role at AUT.

Tell us a little about the character Ria in Checkerboard Hill and where she is (physically and mentally) at the start of the novel.

Ria has a secret she is trying to outrun, and she is desperately trying to keep her past and present lives separate to prevent that secret from being uncovered. She’s stubborn, and she’s ashamed of her choices, but at the same time, she also feels justified in her actions and unrepentant, which makes her feel like she’s a terrible person ultimately undeserving of forgiveness. She’s stuck in a shame spiral that leads to inertia and an inability to do anything to rectify the situation, as well as an undercurrent of fear of being found out. Because of this, Ria feels undeserving of happiness and the life and family that she has, and there’s a sense of dark unease that ripples through the opening chapters of the book. 

Rewi is a collaborative effort with Jeremy Hansen. How did you find the process of co-authoring a book and also researching an architect who is not well-known beyond architectural circles?

 The book is a loose weaving together or layering of multiple perspectives and conceptual imagery, ultimately forming a portrait of a man who was an architect, but also a thinker, an educator, a colleague, a family member, and a friend. The process was reasonably organic — we interviewed Professor Deidre Brown who gave us a great overview of Rewi’s career, and we spent some time digging around in the University of Auckland archives. From here, we drew up a loose thematic structure and a list of people we’d like to interview. The project and chapter lists expanded (as new projects were discovered in the archive or interviewees suggested additional people to interview) and contracted (as imagery we thought we’d be able to secure became impossible to locate or interviewees became unavailable), which is probably how we ended up with such a large book. We edited as we went and fed the content to the team at Massey University Press and worked closely with the team at Extended Whānau to select imagery, which included Rewi’s conceptual drawings and sketches from the archive, floor plans that I redrew to scale in a simple consistent style, archival photography that we relicensed, and new photography. All up, I think we did four rounds of edits, starting with a paper copy delivered in the mail.

 Rewi features illustrations of mysterious projects featuring T-Rexes inside the buildings. What did you think when you first laid eyes on these dinosaur sketches?

I thought it was fantastic! There was a folder in the archive labelled ‘KOHA’ that had an incredible collection of speculative imagery, and little to no commentary. The T-Rex appeared in a number of these images, presumably for scale, and turned out to be a wonderful motif that many people have commented on.

One of Rewi Thompson’s speculative drawings featuring a giant T-Rex and statue of David. Rewi Thompson architectural drawings collection. 1972-2016. MSS & Archives Arch 2017/2. Architecture Archive, Special Collections, University of Auckland.

What’s ahead for you in 2024?

I’m working on a Māori language dictionary of architecture, so book-wise that’s my main focus. Probably the most comparable projects/dictionaries that currently exist are the subject-specific dictionaries created for wharekura (Māori language high school), and He Papakupu Reo Ture: A Dictionary of Māori Legal Terms edited by Mamari Stephens and Mary Boyce.The methodology I’m using is quite different to the law dictionary, and my dictionary will also have a substantial illustrated component.  

I also have a science fiction project I’m writing on the side. I’m trying to write it in te reo Māori so that’s a huge challenge (but a good one). The working title is Te Ao Ātea o Ngā Motu, which is a bit of a play on Epeli Hau’ofa’s Sea of Islands. The setting is a chain of islands that float in outer space. Tap roots extend from the base of the islands, connecting the islands and anchoring them to an unknown origin point. The main character, Ariā, lives on one of those islands and the novel opens with Ariā’s grandmother preparing for her own tangihanga. The events that led to the creation of the islands are slowly revealed to Ariā as the point of view character (and the reader) through pūrākau, karakia and chants. At the time of her grandmother's death, Ariā began to learn the dark secret behind the life of her people on the island. I’m loosely planning a trilogy but the goal is to get through the first book!

Anyone looking for consistency in my oeuvre will likely be disappointed, as each book has been (and based on the next two planned, will be) vastly different.

Checkerboard Hill, by Jade Kake ($35 Huia Press), is on sale now

Rewi: Āta haere, kia tere by Jeremy Hansen and Jade Kake ($75 Massey University Press), is on sale now.