Te Kahu (Ngāi te Rangi) hails from Tauranga and is now based in Ōtaki with his partner and young family. Perhaps known best for his slam poetry, Te Kahu was Aotearoa’s National Poetry Slam champion in 2014. His work honours his whakapapa and whenua, combining mythology, history and modern politics to speak to what it means to be Māori.

Te Kahu was also one of the eight kaituhi selected for RNZTPM’s pilot Pōkai Tuhi programme this year. While previously published as part of anthologies such as Rapture: An Anthology of Performance Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand, he is currently also developing a manuscript as part of the Māori Literature Trust’s Te Papa Tupu incubator programme.

Alongside his own creative work, Te Kahu is one of the most frequently requested writers in the much-loved Read NZ Te Pou Muramura flagship programme ‘Writers in Schools,’ which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023.

His school visits take the form of workshops or presentations to large groups or small, and Te Kahu’s ability to connect with tamariki and give them confidence to play with language is unparalleled.

His Pānui, Te Tukanga Ako, will bring his unique teaching methodology into an accessible format for the first time, with the intention of empowering other educators to achieve similar results.

“We are so grateful to work with kaituhi like Te Kahu, who bring their mana and mauri so generously to every single visit,” says Read NZ Te Pou Muramura CEO Juliet Blyth.

“Te Kahu has had a profound impact on literally thousands of tamariki across hundreds of visits in recent years. The knowledge contained in his Pānui will help this ripple even further.”

Te Kahu’s Pānui address traces his origins as a writer, recounting some of the classroom memories that have shaped his confidence in working with words - for better or for worse. It fuses deeply personal recollection with instructional ako, exploring how these elements inform and shape each other in the classroom and beyond, and giving teachers a kete from which to pick tools for classroom use.

The 2024 Pānui will be delivered at the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa on the evening of Tuesday 5 November, and subsequently published as a small book with limited distribution.

“We are thrilled to have Te Kahu as the next in the kaleidoscope of voices that form the annual Pānui’s history,” says Juliet.

By providing an opportunity for writers and storytellers to consider and share on an aspect of reading and writing close to their heart, the annual Pānui (formerly known as the Book Council lecture) has become a landmark event in Aotearoa’s literary calendar.

Previous Pānui have been delivered by speakers as varied as Mona Williams, Dame Fiona Kidman, Ben Brown, Lani Wendt Young, Renee, Witi Ihimaera, and Eleanor Catton.

Book a ticket for Te Kahu's Pānui here.