Helen Waaka

Waaka, Helen (Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Torehina) says that she didn’t become serious about writing until her early fifties. ‘I enrolled in a few short courses in creative writing in Hawke's Bay and Tāmaki Makaurau and soon became hooked. I realised then I’d been making up stories in my head for years and it was writing that accessed those stories and brought them to life.’

Waitapu, a composite novel, explores the lives of small town people over a forty year time span. Helen was awarded a New Zealand Society of Authors mentorship while writing Waitapu in 2013. At Helen's Wellington launch, Renée said ‘I feel like someone has finally got what small towns in Aotearoa are about’ and at the 2016 Going West Books and Writers festival Paula Green compared the structure of the book to ‘an exquisitely crafted crochet blanket...Each story hooks a character from the story before, the characters, hooked and rehooked in vital interconnections.’

Albert Wendt included Waitapu in his 2015 Booknotes Unbound list of favourite books, describing the stories as unpretentious, sensitive and accessible. ‘Waitapu will live with me for a long time.’

Waitapu was a finalist in the Ngā Kupu Ora Māori Book awards in October 2016. Pikihuia judge Reina Whaitiri said the stories were ‘real, authentic, close to the bone. These stories make for great reading — I love them.’

Helen also has several short stories included in Huia Publishers' short story collections Huia Short Stories 9, 10, 11 and Ngā Hau e Wha - Stories on the Four Winds. 

She was awarded a Michael King Emerging Māori writer's residency in 2018.