In this recording, Alison Parr conducts an interview with the New Zealand and Cook Islands poet and novelist, Alistair Te Ariki Campbell.
(Beginning of interview not recorded.)
Campbell talks about his childhood after the death of his parents in the Cook Islands, he and his siblings were sent to live in a Dunedin orphanage.
He talks about racism he encountered both in the islands and in Dunedin in the 1930s (N.B. use of racially offensive language.) He says he grew ashamed of his mother because of her skin colour and became extremely competitive in sports and academia as a way of coping with the lack of confidence caused by racism.
The orphanage sent children in the summer to a fruit farm in Cromwell Gorge run by the Robertson family, which he loved as the hot, dry landscape reminded him of the northern Cook Islands. He then reads his poem from 1948 "The Cromwell Gorge."
He says he became aware of the power of words in 6th form while studying modern poets. When he came to Victoria University he became more serious about poetry after meeting other students who would become known as "The Wellington Group."
He talks about his poem "The Return" which he wrote while working at a hospital for returned soldiers - and then reads it.
He talks about his mental breakdown in 1960 and the treatment he received. He says he realised he had been denying his Polynesian background and harbouring anger at his dead parents. He talks about his sister who never recovered from their loss.
He reminisces about his trip back to the Cook Islands and the island of Tongareva, in the early 1970s and the many poems this inspired. He reads "Trade Winds", a poem about his parents.
He shares his views on modern 'semantic' poetry versus his own style of lyric poetry and ends by reading four sections from "Elegy for ANZAC Day."