Tusiata Avia MNZM has published five books of poetry and created several successful stage shows, including Wild Dogs Under My Skirt. It had a two-week run off-Broadway, at Soho Playhouse in New York in 2020, winning the Fringe Encore Series prize for outstanding production. Her most recent poetry collection, Big Fat Brown Bitch, has just been published.
Your poem, The Savage Coloniser, caused a furore. What happened?
That poem was published a few years ago in the collection that won the 2021 Ockham Award for poetry. In February this year, I did an interview with Stuff about its adaptation as a play for the Auckland Arts Festival. The poem was printed with the article, which is how it came to the attention of
