Matariki Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) is a 21 year old Poet and Filmmaker. She uses these art forms as an avenue to shed light on often untold stories and to connect her own whakapapa.
She is a founding member of Ngā Hine Pūkōrero, a bilingual slam poetry team. Ngā Hine Pūkōrero are Aotearoa Spoken Word slam champions, Australasian Spoken Word slam champions, and in 2019 reached the final stages of the biggest youth poetry slam in the world, Brave New Voices in the United States.
In 2021, Ngā Hine Pūkōrero were honoured with the Creative New Zealand Ngā Manu Pirere Award, recognising outstanding emerging Māori artists.
Matariki’s poetry has been on display in the caretakers cottage for ‘Te Timatanga’ as part of Auckland Pride 2022, in a multi media collaboration art piece called ‘Pepi Hā’ alongside her sister, Māhina Bennett, and her brother Tīhema Bennet and another poetry collaborative artwork with her siblings, ‘Guns’ was on display at Corbans Estate as part of the ‘Bodies of Woven Code’ exhibition.
Matariki is currently working writing her first book, a collection of poetry titled, ‘E kō, nō hea koe’ funded by Creative New Zealand.
Discover the ways that you can get involved in the poetry community and support our Aotearoa poets.
