World-renowned poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou has recently found a Māori voice, with many of her poems being translated into Te Reo.
“Wāhine Toikupu” features eight wāhine graduates from The Institute of Māori Language Excellence who collaboratively translated the poems from "The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou” and recited them at an event in Tāmaki hosted by The Auckland Arts Festival.
Karena Kelly was one of the readers at the event, who had this to say about Dr Angelou.
“She was important in so many ways. She introduced African American women writing in the United States and she was generous to a fault.
“She was a real original and there will be no duplicate.”
Among the many in attendance was Te Reo Māori expert Sir Timoti Karetu, who was pleased with the quality of the translations.
“Beautiful, just beautiful. I’m really impressed with the quality of the final translations of these poems,” he says.