A bleak walk through Act’s nearly two-year vendetta against one poet.

Imagine if you were going about your business and working really hard and occasionally being celebrated for your work and every time it happened, a party in government complained and threatened to punish everyone for celebrating you. Would that be weird?

Such is the absurdity of Act’s nearly two-year vendetta against poet Tusiata Avia, which has culminated most recently in a thinly veiled threat to Creative New Zealand for occasionally awarding Avia funding and prizes for her work. 

It is a grudge that defies all logic, and while it began when Act was a plucky loud minor party in opposition, its continuation in government has added a bleak weight to the obsession.

Here is a quick refresher on how it all started and what set Act off on this seemingly never-ending mission to… I dunno, defund one poet?

2020

In 2020, Tusiata Avia’s book of poetry The Savage Coloniser is published. In Avia’s usual style, the poems cover a range of topics without holding back. The Christchurch terror attack, Covid, Black Lives Matter and violence against women are all traversed in The Savage Coloniser. The book is reviewed positively and awarded the Mary and Peter Biggs poetry award at the 2021 Ockham NZ Book Awards.

From 2020 to 2023, Avia lives an ordinary life as a New Zealand poet. A life much like thousands of other creatives in this country; filled with funding applications, writing, festival events, school visits and whatever else is required to survive while being a poet.

2023

Unsurprisingly, The Savage Coloniser is picked up for a stage adaptation. Unsurprisingly because since 2015, Avia’s early stage work, Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, had been intermittently touring in various forms to widespread (think: global) critical success. 

Creative New Zealand grants $107,280 to a production company (not Avia) to stage The Savage Coloniser, which will go on to be performed all over the country by the end of the year. In promoting the show’s premiere in Auckland, Avia is profiled by Michelle Duff for Stuff. Duff writes a longform profile that canvasses Avia’s whole life and career. At the very end is a poem: ‘250th anniversary of James Cook’s arrival in New Zealand’ from The Savage Coloniser (published in 2020). 

And so begins the drama. Act leader David Seymour, then in opposition, sends out a press release with the headline: Govt funding hate with show about murdering white people. Seymour accuses the government of “giving so much to racism” and says it should apologise.

It’s a juvenile attempt to stoke controversy – not to mention revealing a complete absence of reading comprehension – but since Act is in opposition, it’s hardly surprising. Anything goes for a minor party trying to stir up conversation and get in the media.

As an aside (isn’t he always), Sean Plunket has been adding his own two cents multiple times. Act then calls out race relations commissioner Meng Foon for not supporting its mission.

Almost certainly as a result of Seymour’s outrage, numerous complaints are made to the Human Rights Commission about the poem and 24 complaints are received by the Media Council (only 11 of which were fully completed). The Media Council upholds none of them.

Seymour puts out another release complaining about it.

In October, Act moves from being in opposition to being in a coalition government.

On December 21, after a year of being the subject of intense scrutiny and media attention (all of which she would later say she hated and largely ignored), Avia is announced as the recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry, a hugely celebrated, once-in-a-lifetime award with a $60,000 prize attached. The win is celebrated across the literary sector as recognition of Avia’s work since 2004.

Now in government, Act’s arts, culture and heritage spokesperson Todd Stephenson condemns the “sick, sick decision” in a press release, and vows to never stop “criticising taxpayer money being used to fund a poem about stabbing white people”. Note: the PM’s Award is in recognition of a body of work (or a full career). It was not awarded to Avia to “fund a poem” as said poem was a) one of dozens that make up Avia’s body of work, and b) was published in 2020.

What makes this latest attack different is now Act is in government, criticising the choices of Creative New Zealand holds an inherent threat. 

On December 30, when any ordinary person would be Logging Off, Act logs back on. It tweets the same Avia poem and asks followers if they believe that the poem should receive taxpayer funding. Again, it is a complaint about a prize but seems to conflate a career prize with funding for work granted years earlier. 

2024

Act tweets about Avia again on New Year’s Day.

Then for 10 sweet months, Avia is largely left alone by the official Act accounts. Others still complain about her online though. 

Last week, the CNZ Arts Pasifika Awards were handed out, with Avia taking home the Senior Pacific Artist award ($25,000). Again the award was in recognition of a body of work, including another book published since the Act vendetta began. Her name was uttered aloud again and like the candyman, Act soon appeared to complain.

“We’re not sure that Creative NZ has picked up that this Government isn’t keen on taxpayers’ money being spent on hateful and racist vitriol. After awarding Tusiata Avia $60,000 last year, this week she received $25,000 for the Senior Pacific Artist Award at the Arts Pasifika Awards 2024,” begins the tweet, again conflating Avia the person with a single poem of hers from 2020.

“The Government is moving into another budget cycle and will be looking to make spending cuts at low-value departments. Creative NZ is continuing to tempt fate.” 

There is simply no way to read that statement without reading a threat to Creative NZ based on its funding decisions. Speaking on behalf of the government is a strong move to make given the minister for arts, culture and heritage Paul Goldsmith opened the Arts Pasifika Awards. But the real threat is in the final line. “The Government is moving into another budget cycle and will be looking to make spending cuts at low-value departments. Creative NZ is continuing to tempt fate.”

Translation: we don’t like the decisions you’ve made and therefore will look to reduce your funding in the next cycle. Again, an incredible threat of government overreach and one that borders on censorship, quite the moral crime for the party that’s all about freedom of speech.

The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Act 2014 outlines the functions of Creative NZ, and says: “The Minister may not give a direction to the Arts Council [CNZ] in relation to cultural matters.” The minister may not give direction and the minister’s coalition partner certainly may not.

And: “the Arts Council has power to establish any endowments or create any trusts on any terms and conditions, and for any objects within the purposes of this Act, that the Arts Council thinks fit.”

If Act wants to defund Creative NZ, it should just say that. But I don’t think it is truly against funding the arts because in October 2022, it came out strongly in defence of arts funding. But only for Shakespeare (Seymour complained at the time about reduced funding for the Sheilah Winn festival), which also turned out to be a lot more complicated and reasonable than CNZ saying “we don’t want to fund Shakespeare any more”.

So it’s not the function of CNZ that’s the problem. It really is just that Act hates Avia’s work and insists on talking about it every chance it gets. No one is required to engage with the work of artists but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist. In fact, that is probably something Act would champion if it was provocative art that aligned more with the party’s ideas. And it is perfectly reasonably for politicians or even parties to have views about particular New Zealand art.

But to consistently and publicly attack a lone poet under the guise of concern about the state of arts funding, even after making it into government, is simple cowardice. And yes, very weird.