An Interview with Alan Duff

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dc.contributor.authorDuff, Alan
dc.contributor.authorHereniko, Vilsoni
dc.date.accessioned2009-10-30T00:15:30Z
dc.date.available2009-10-30T00:15:30Z
dc.date.issued1995
dc.description.abstractAlan Duff's novel Once Were Warriors is the first work of fiction to be published in the Talanoa: Contemporary Pacific Literature series of the University of Hawai'i Press. One reason for choosing this novel was that it had recently been published in AotearoalNew Zealand (I990) and was causing considerable controversy. All of a sudden, this relatively unknown Maori was making headlines in the print media, being interviewed over and over again on television, and making a lot of people angry. His novel had shot to the top of the bestsellers' list soon after its release, and booksellers were besieged with requests to buy it-a novel that supposedly puts the boot in the face of the Maori. Once Were Warriors is now a successful, award-winning feature film. Alan Duff, who has since published another novel titled One Night Out Stealing (I992), a nonfiction book titled Maori: The Crisis and the Challenge (I993), anda radio series, State Ward (I994), is now famous, if not a household name in AotearoalNew Zealand. By his account, more novels, and possibly films, are already being written or planned. Refusing to be silenced by his critics, this author will probably continue to be in the news for many years to come. The mention of Duff's name is enough to set many people off, Maori and non-Maori alike. In a recent issue of this journal, Christina Thompson wrote a lengthy article that used as a hook the selection by theUniversity of Hawai'i Press of Alan Duff as a "representative Maori writer." Labeling the choice "radical," she teased out the cultural and political issues that surround his book-which is "problematic from almost any perspective" (THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC 6:397-4I3). The interview that follows allows the author to talk about his work from his own perspective, and to continue the debate that still rages around it. Soon after his film was released, Duff passed through Hawai'i on his way to Budapest to promote it. The University of Hawai'i Press took the opportunity to ask him to talk about his work during the launching of the Talanoa series, and Vilsoni Hereniko interviewed him in his office on I6 June I994. Hereniko describes the interview.
dc.identifier.citationDuff, Alan. 1995. An Interview with Alan Duff. By Vilsoni Hereniko. The Contemporary Pacific 7 (2): 328-44.
dc.identifier.issn1043-898X
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10125/13056
dc.language.isoen-US
dc.publisherUniversity of Hawai'i Press
dc.publisherCenter for Pacific Islands Studies
dc.subject.lcshOceania -- Periodicals.
dc.titleAn Interview with Alan Duff
dc.typeOther
dc.type.dcmiText

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TCP [The Contemporary Pacific], 1995 - Volume 7, Number 2