​JAMES GEORGE

Acclaimed Māori fiction writer, James George, was a long-serving Chair of Te Hā – Contemporary Māori Writers, contributed to four ‘On the Bus’ regional Māori writers tours (Waiariki 2004, Tairāwhiti 2006, Ōtautahi 2007, Te Tai Tokerau 2008) and was first elected as a Toi Māori Aotearoa Trustee in 2015.

James brings his sharp and analytical mind to the governance of Toi Māori Aotearoa along with a keen understanding and empathy for the demands of Māori creative practice. As a Creative Writing Lecturer at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), James is tuned to the concerns, fashions and dynamics of tertiary culture in our largest city, the evolving needs of rangatahi Māori and has supervised more than 30 Master of Arts degrees in his 15-year career as an academic.

With a background in commerce, James began writing in 1995 with his first novel, Wooden Horses, published in 2000. Through the 2000s, James’ completed two further novels, Hummingbird (2004) and Ocean Roads (2006), comprising a trilogy staged in Te Tai Tokerau in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.