Poetic rage

Tusiata Avia’s new collection responds to the furore her award-winning last work belatedly ignited.

- ELISABETH EASTHER

Tusiata Avia MNZM has published five books of poetry and created several successful stage shows, including Wild Dogs Under My Skirt. It had a two-week run off-Broadway, at Soho Playhouse in New York in 2020, winning the Fringe Encore Series prize for outstanding production. Her most recent poetry collection, Big Fat Brown Bitch, has just been published.

Your poem, The Savage Coloniser, caused a furore. What happened? 

That poem was published a few years ago in The Savage Coloniser Book, the collection that won the 2021 Ockham Award for poetry. In February this year, I did an interview with Stuff about its adaptation as a play for the Auckland Arts Festival. The poem was printed with the article, which is how it came to the attention of [online radio channel The Platform's] Sean Plunket and Act leader David Seymour - the sorts of people who clearly don't realise that a poem does many things and can contain symbols, metaphors and layering. Maybe some people only read the words on the page and don't think further?

What was the reaction?

I was called a hate-fuelled racist who wanted to kill white men. Sean Plunket composed a poem to me, all in rhyming doggerel. He also encouraged his followers to complain to the Race Relations Commissioner and the Media Council. Some of the 300 complaints likened the poem to the Christchurch massacre and Act used it to do some race-baiting in the run-up to the election. A flood of hate mail followed, then a threat to my life.

How did you respond?