Podcasts 2025
Our good friends at Otago Access Radio have produced these podcasts so you can relive your favourite 2025 Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival sessions or catch up on some you missed.
Ahi Kā: The Long Burning Fire
Kai te pokapū oti o tā mātau nei hui ahurei te ahi kā. He mura pūmau ia, ehara i te mea teretere, māna te pō hai tūrama.
Koinei tā Nadia Wesley-Smith wero ki a tātau: Ko te aha te kai hai whākai i te ahi? Mā wai oti taua mahi? Ko te aha kā whakariteka tika hai whakapakari i te iwi? Koinei kā pātai hirahira o te hui ahurei nei.
Taku ahi tūtata, taku mata kikoha. Ponitakatia tōhona mahana.
Ahi Kā — the burning fire of occupation — has provided us a steady glow in which to organise a festival. It offered both breadth and focus: a concept expansive enough to hold multitudes, yet grounded enough to remind us of where we stand.
As Nadia Wesley-Smith provocatively asks us: What nourishes the fire? Who tends it? What braces and builds a people?
These are the questions at the heart of this festival. May they kindle something in you.
Pōwhiri
Mana Whenua Kaikaranga - Paulette Tamati-Elliffe & Nadia Wesley-Smith
Haka Pōwhiri - He Waka Kōtuia
Manuhiri Karanga - Reitu Cassidy
Kaikōrero - Edward Ellison & Tāme Iti
Ahi Kā - The Long Burning Fire
Chaired by Kiringāua Cassidy and Nadia Wesley-Smith
The Firestarter. We gather at Ōtākou Marae to share stories about and around the home fire. Fill your puku with a homestyle boil up supper, then nourish your wairua listening to acclaimed writers as they, in turn, stoke the long-burning fire of ahi kā.
Apirana Taylor, Tāme Iti, Ati Teepa, Nadine Hura, Robert Sullivan, Jeanette Wikaira, Waiariki Parata- Taiapa, Tina Makereti, Talia Marshall, Victor Rodger, Megan Pōtiki
The Book of Guilt:
In Conversation with Catherine Chidgey
Join acclaimed novelist Catherine Chidgey and Ōtepoti favourite Jeff Harford for an exploration of fiction’s power to illuminate the shadows of human nature.
In her latest work, The Book of Guilt, Chidgey crafts a spine-chilling vision of alternate 1979 England, where children are classified by their worth to society. This haunting yet oddly comforting novel asks the questions we’d rather avoid: who deserves to belong, and who gets to decide?
It’s Been Six Weeks Since My Last Confession:
In Conversation with Peta Mathias
Award-winning food writer and TV presenter Peta Mathias MNZM serves up her most deliciously indiscreet stories yet in this razor-sharp memoir, along side host Harriet Moir.
In her 19th book, she dishes out hard-won wisdom with trademark wit and zero filter. Sharp, funny, and utterly fearless — this is Mathias at her most irresistible.
Mana - In Conversation with Tāme Iti
Tāme Iti is an artist, actor, poet, entrepreneur, beekeeper, gardener, father and grandfather with a bone-deep commitment to his practice. Throughout his life he has used creativity as a vessel for change — moving fluidly between disciplines and genres with a vision that has resonated across decades. On the occasion of publishing Mana, his memoir and story, we celebrate Tāme, with hosts Paulette Tamati-Elliffe and Komene Cassidy.
Anything Could Happen -
In Conversation with Grant Robertson
Join former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister (and current University of Otago Vice-Chancellor) Grant Robertson, with host Ian Telfer, for an intimate look behind the curtain of New Zealand politics during some of our most defining moments. Grant discusses the art of political storytelling, why vulnerability can be a strength in leadership, and his enduring optimism about Aotearoa’s potential even in turbulent times.
Laying Siege ti Lips - Apirana Taylor
The Hone Tuwhare Trust Poetry Series
Join celebrated poet Apirana Taylor as he lays siege to lips with every syllable.
Echoing Hone Tuwhare’s legacy of language that stirs, seduces, and stands its ground, this will be an event where words are performed! Hosted by acclaimed playwright and provocateur Victor Rodger.