John Pule

John Pule, born in Liku, Niue in 1962 [ [http://www.qag.qld.gov.au/collection/pacific_art/john_puhiatau_pule Description of John Pule's painting "Kulukakina (after experiencing something miraculous, withdraw)", 2004] on the Queensland Art Gallery's website] [ [http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/pulejohn.html John Pule] in the "The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature"] , is a Niuean artist, novelist and poet. [ [http://www.otago.ac.nz/press/booksauthors/2005/pulethomas.html University of Otago] ] He has lived in Auckland, New Zealand since the age of 3. The Queensland Art Gallery describes him as "one of the Pacific's most significant artists". [ [http://www.qag.qld.gov.au/collection/pacific_art/john_puhiatau_pule Description of John Pule's painting "Kulukakina (after experiencing something miraculous, withdraw)", 2004] on the Queensland Art Gallery's website]

Literature

Describing the beginning of his literary career, Pule explained::"“I just wanted to write about growing up in New Zealand, and about being the youngest of 17 kids and about migration—but I wasn’t sure how to organize ideas, so I just started writing.”" [ [http://www.pacificmagazine.net/issue/2002/07/01/the-bifocal-world-of-john-pule "The Bifocal World of John Pule: This Niuean Writer and Painter Is Still Searching For A Place To Call Home"] , Scott Whitney, "Pacific Magazine", July 1, 2002]

He also described his writing as a means of "decolonizing his mind". [ [http://www.pacificmagazine.net/issue/2002/07/01/the-bifocal-world-of-john-pule "The Bifocal World of John Pule: This Niuean Writer and Painter Is Still Searching For A Place To Call Home"] , Scott Whitney, "Pacific Magazine", July 1, 2002] His work expresses his experience as a Niuean in New Zealand::"“My heart and my thoughts were always on Niue. But here I was living in Aotearoa on someone else’s land. Writing helped change me, painting helped change me. I went back to Niue as often as I could, and I’d weed and clear the graves for my family and friends’ families. It’s a way of saying I’m back. [...] We go back home [to Niue] with our Nikes and our jeans and we think we know things. But the local people just think we’re stupid. They know where all the trees are and the pathways and where the mythologies and the stories live.” [ [http://www.pacificmagazine.net/issue/2002/07/01/the-bifocal-world-of-john-pule "The Bifocal World of John Pule: This Niuean Writer and Painter Is Still Searching For A Place To Call Home"] , Scott Whitney, "Pacific Magazine", July 1, 2002]

Pule's first novel, "The Shark that Ate the Sun" ("Ko E Mago Ne Kai E La") [ISBN 0140172041] , was published in 1992. "Burn My Head in Heaven" [ISBN 0140273743] ("Tugi e ulu haaku he langi") followed in 2000, and "Restless people" ("Tagata kapakiloi") in 2004.

His published poetry includes "Sonnets to Van Gogh and Providence (1982)", "Flowers after the Sun" (1984) and "Bond of Time" (1985). [ [http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/pulejohn.html John Pule] in the "The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature"]

Artwork

Pule's artwork includes painting, drawing, printmaking, film-making and performance. The topics of his work include Niuean cosmology and Christianity, as well as perspectives on migration and colonialism. [ [http://www.qag.qld.gov.au/collection/pacific_art/john_puhiatau_pule Description of John Pule's painting "Kulukakina (after experiencing something miraculous, withdraw)", 2004] on the Queensland Art Gallery's website]

His work comprises both painting on canvass and bark cloth painting, a traditional Polynesian artform. [ [http://www.pacificmagazine.net/issue/2002/07/01/the-bifocal-world-of-john-pule "The Bifocal World of John Pule: This Niuean Writer and Painter Is Still Searching For A Place To Call Home"] , Scott Whitney, "Pacific Magazine", July 1, 2002]

He was a guest professor of creative writing at the University of Hawai‘i in the spring of 2002. [ [http://www.pacificmagazine.net/issue/2002/07/01/the-bifocal-world-of-john-pule "The Bifocal World of John Pule: This Niuean Writer and Painter Is Still Searching For A Place To Call Home"] , Scott Whitney, "Pacific Magazine", July 1, 2002]

In 2005, he co-wrote "Hiapo: Past and present in Niuean barkcloth", a study of a traditional Niuean artform, with Australian writer and anthropologist Nicholas Thomas. [ [http://www.otago.ac.nz/press/booksauthors/2005/pulethomas.html University of Otago] ]

External links

* [http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/search.aspx?advanced=colProProductionMakers%3a%22Pule%2c+John%22 Artworks in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa]
* [http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/pulejohn.html John Pule] in the "The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature"
* [http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/nzp/nzlit2/pule.htm#by A list of books by and about John Pule, with references to reviews of his books] , "New Zealand Literature File", Library of the University of Auckland
* [http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/authors/pule/index.asp John Pule] at the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre
* [http://www.qag.qld.gov.au/collection/pacific_art/john_puhiatau_pule Example of Pule's painting] at the Queensland Art Gallery
* [http://www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz/OnDemand/Audio/TeReo/Works/?ID=Pule-trio About John Pule and his work, Christchurch Art Gallery]

References