Siobahn Harvey reports from the Festival
Saturday May 12th
– 10am – 11 am
Lower NZI Room,
Aotea Centre
The strength of
any literary festival lies on the performances given on its smaller stages as
much as those delivered on its larger ones. There, on those smaller stages, the
best literary festivals showcase discussion and debate as stimulating as
audiences find in the bigger arenas.
In this vein, Colenso: Peter Wells certainly reminded
its audience of the power of this year’s AWRF. Essentially this was ‘An Hour
with…’ the distinguished memoirist, novelist and co-festival director, Wells as
he discussed his most recent book, The
Hungry Heart – Journeys with William Colenso (Vintage, 2011).
Until recently the
former head of Bethune at Webb’s, the rare book department at Webb’s Auctions,
Francis McWhannell chaired this session. He kicked it off with a well worded
introduction of Wells, and then initiated discussion by asking Wells to talk
about his genesis of his book (a move to Napier, Colenso’s connection and
notoriety in the Art-Deco capital of the world…) as well as background Colenso’s
life.
Thereafter,
McWhannell took a back-seat and allowed Wells to speak in his quiet but
commanding manner about the influence of both Bagnall and Peterson’s 1948 biography William Colenso, his Life and Journey, and
of The New Yorker on Wells’ crafting
of his book. In terms of the former, Wells spoke about how the earlier
biography’s charting of Colenso’s printing and tramping enriched his own
research. While, of the latter, it was The
New Yorker’s articles’ ability to present profound subject matter in a
stimulating and accessible manner that, Wells explained, he sought to replicate.
Other topics
discussed included the tortures endured by Colenso’s wife, Colenso’s advocacy
for Maori during the signing of the Treaty of the Waitangi and beyond, and the sway
of what Wells eloquently called “the
glittering consumer age arriving” at the edges of the world like New
Zealand upon Maori-Pakeha relations at the time.
The session closed
with Wells’ gently reading part of a chapter and a reproduced letter from the
biography as well as questions from the audience about Colenso’s Maori child
Wiremu, his mother, Rebecca and the diaspora of Colenso’s descendants. Wells
tempted the audience by revealing that he’s like to do a future book about
Wiremu.
This session
reached about two-third capacity. Given the quality of this understated but
authoritative session, those empty seats deserved to be filled.
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