Rowley Habib (24 April 1933 – 3 April 2016), also known as Rore Hapipi, was a New Zealand poet, playwright, and writer of short stories and television scripts.

Biography

Of Lebanese and

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

descent, Habib identified with the

Ngāti Tūwharetoa Ngāti Tūwharetoa is an iwi descended from Ngātoro-i-rangi, the priest who navigated the Arawa canoe to New Zealand. The Tūwharetoa region extends from Te Awa o te Atua (Tarawera River) at Matatā across the central plateau of the North Isla ...

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

. He was educated at

Te Aute College Te Aute College (Māori language, Māori: Te Kura o Te Aute) is a school in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand. It opened in 1854 with twelve pupils under Samuel Williams (missionary), Samuel Williams, an Anglicanism, Anglican missionary, and n ...

and then attended teachers' training college for a time, before working in a variety of jobs including in a bookshop, timber mills, freezing works, and on hydroelectric dam construction sites. He was the first Māori to write an original television drama: his 1979 work ''The Gathering'' looked at tensions around an elderly woman's

tangihanga ''Tangihanga'', or more commonly, ''tangi'', is a traditional Māori funeral rite held on a marae. While still widely practised, it is not universally observed in modern times. Each iwi (tribe/nation) differs on how they honour those who pass. ''T ...

. He also wrote the play, ''Death of the Land'', in 1976, a courtroom drama which sets in conflict opinions about the proposed sale of a block of Māori ancestral land. This play marks a beginning point for contemporary Māori theatre, the company Te Ika a Maui Players was formed to present it, which they did around the country in community halls, and

marae A ' (in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan), ' (in Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves religious and social purposes in Polynesian societies. In all these languages, the term a ...

. The 1978 television adaptation of the play includes footage of the 1975

Māori Land March The Māori land march of 1975 was a protest led by the group , created by Dame Whina Cooper. The hīkoi (march) started in Northland on 14 September, travelled the length of the North Island, and arrived at the parliament building in Welling ...

and was the first television drama written by a Māori person. Habib's television drama ''The Protesters'' won the award for best script at the 1983 New Zealand Feltex Awards. The cast of ''The Protesters'' included

Merata Mita Merata Mita (19 June 1942 – 31 May 2010) was a New Zealand filmmaker, producer, and writer, and a key figure in the growth of the Māori screen industry. Early life Mita was born on 19 June 1942 in Maketu in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty. She ...

Jim Moriarty James Moriarty (born 20 June 1953) is a New Zealand actor and theatre director, who began acting professionally in 1967. He came to national attention and is probably best known for his role as the school teacher Riki Winiata in the 1970s soap ...

, Billy T. James and

Don Selwyn Don Charles Selwyn (22 November 1935 – 13 April 2007) was a Māori actor and filmmaker from New Zealand. He was a founding member of the New Zealand Māori Theatre Trust and directed the 2002 film '' Te tangata whai rawa o Weneti (The Maori me ...

. In the field of short story writing, from 1956 to 1971 Habib was a regular contributor to ''

Te Ao Hou / The New World ''Te Ao Hou / The New World'' was a quarterly magazine published in New Zealand from 1952 to 1975. It was published by the Māori Affairs Department and printed by Pegasus Press. It was bilingual, with articles in both English and Māori, and c ...

'', a magazine for Māori. In 1984, Habib was awarded the

Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship The Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, formerly known as the New Zealand Post Katherine Mansfield Prize and the Meridian Energy Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, is one of New Zealand's foremost literary awards. Named after Katherin ...

, In 2013,

Creative New Zealand The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government, investing in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes and developing markets ...

awarded him a Ngā Tohu a Tā Kingi Ihaka Te Waka Toi Award in recognition of his lifetime of service to Māori arts, describing his play ''Death of the Land'' as a "landmark in the development of Māori theatre." Habib died on 3 April 2016.

Selected works

Television scripts

* 1976 – ''Death of the Land'' (aired in 1978) * 1979 – ''The Gathering'' * 1983 – ''The Protesters''

Poetry

* 2006– Poetry anthology, ''The Raw Men''. O-a-Tia Publishers

Plays

* 1976 - ''The death of the land''

References

External links

Rowley Habib A New Voice in New Zealand Writing
on National Library of New Zealand website

on National Library of New Zealand website {{DEFAULTSORT:Habib, Rowley 1933 births 2016 deaths Ngāti Tūwharetoa people New Zealand people of Lebanese descent People educated at Te Aute College 21st-century New Zealand poets New Zealand male poets New Zealand male short story writers New Zealand Māori writers 21st-century New Zealand male writers