Timeline

With RAK Mason

1920/30s

Born 1922 near Kaikohe, of Ngäpuhi, Ngäti Korokoro, Tautahi, Uri o Hau, Te Popoto and Scottish descent. After his mother’s death the family moves to Auckland where his father works as a labourer.

Hone attends several schools, then starts a boilermaking apprenticeship with NZ Railways. Reads widely from the workshop library and starts writing poetry.

1940s

Joins the Communist Party, where he meets RAK Mason and becomes involved in trade unions. Joins the Mäori Battalion and serves in Japan (post-Hiroshima) with the occupational force.

Marries Jean McCormack in 1949. Moves to Wellington; involved with trade unions and Communist Party.

1950s

Leaves his job to lead an international peace delegation to Sydney. Sons Rewi, Robert and Andrew are born. Works as boilermaker on hydro scheme in Mangakino between 1953–61. Leaves Communist Party in protest at Soviet invasion of Hungary.

Father dies (1957); Hone begins writing poetry seriously, encouraged by local author Noel Hilliard.

Building the dam at
Mangakino

First poem published in Poetry Yearbook (1958).

1960s

First print run of No Ordinary Sun (1964) sells out quickly.

Family moves to Auckland, Hone works at Devonport Naval Base. Elected to Birkenhead Borough Council.

Centennial Robert Burns Fellow at Otago University (1969), following close friend James Baxter. Establishes lifelong friendship with artist Ralph Hotere: they use each other’s works to complement their own.

1970s

Works as boilermaker in Papua New Guinea and Samoa. Meets Albert Wendt.

Come Rain Hail (1971), Sap-wood & Milk (1972).

Helps organise first Mäori Writers & Artists Hui at Te Kaha (1973).

Rejoins Communist Party in admiration at progress in China. Wins second Burns Fellowship and moves to Dunedin. Something Nothing (1974).

With Denis Glover on the 1976 tour.

National tour with Denis Glover, Sam Hunt and Alan Brunton (1975). Takes part in Mäori land march to Parliament. Helps organise 5000-strong march in Dunedin against SIS Amendment Bill. Expelled from Communist Party for acting in an ‘un-Marxist way’.

Making a Fist of It: Poems and Short Stories (1978).

National tour with Jan Kemp, Alastair Campbell and Sam Hunt (1979).

1980s

Selected Poems (1980).

Attends Commonwealth literary conference in Germany.

Year of the Dog (poems) and In the Wilderness Without a Hat (play) 1982.

Hocken Research Fellow at Otago University, 1983.

Land march to Waitangi, 1984.

Berlin Writer in Residence 1985.

Mihi (collected poems, 1987).

1990s

Auckland University writer in residence. Te Waka Toi award for work for Mäori art. Moves to Kaka Point, Otago.

Short Back & Sideways: Poems & Prose (1992), Deep River Talk: Collected Poems (1993), Shape-Shifter wins Montana NZ poetry award in 1998.

With Te Mata poet laureates Bill Manhire and
Elizabeth Smither, holding the tokotoko that goes
with the title.

Honorary doctorate from Otago University, 1998.

New Zealand’s second Te Mata Poet Laureate, 1999.

2000s

Piggy-Back Moon wins Montana NZ poetry award in 2002.

Named as an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon Artist, 2003. Read more…

Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement, along with Janet Frame and Michael King, for outstanding contribution to New Zealand literature (2003).