by Reina Whaitiri

Briar Grace-Smith is a playwright and short story writer who is affiliated to Nga Puhi and Ngati Wai in the far north of Aotearoa. Her awards include the 1995 Bruce Mason Playwriting Award, Best New Zealand Play at the 1997 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards, and in 2000 she was the recipient of a Arts Foundation Laureate Award. In 2003 she was the Victoria University Writer in Residence. Her short stories have been included in anthologies including Penguin New Writers (1998), Tangata, Tangata (1999), Toi Wahine (1995), and Huia Short Stories (1995).
    Briar Grace-Smith was invited to attend the Fall Festival of Writers 2007 at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa which featured playwrights from across the Pacific. Her contribution to the panel discussions was warmly received and drew interesting and provocative questions from the audience. An excerpt from her play Purupuruwhetu was included in readings performed at Honolulu’s Kumu Kahua Theatre.
      As a storyteller, Grace-Smith draws on life and human experiences to create unique and powerful narratives for stage, television, and radio. Her work combines past and present, myth and reality, and explores the relationship between humans, nature, and art. Grace-Smith is also able to combine profound and passionate themes with a wicked sense of humour giving her work an interesting and unpredictable tenor.
      Grace-Smith’s plays explore the many different experiences of Maori, and particularly Maori women, living in this modern world while trying to stay connected to their past and their tipuna. Her work also examines the recent history of Maori and tries to make sense of events and experiences not always advantageous and beneficial to us.
      The Strength of Water is a story by Grace-Smith selected for the Sundance screen writers’ laboratory in Utah. The full-length film script was developed with the guidance of other screenwriters who embraced Briar’s vision and helped her find the most compelling way to tell her story. The Strength of Water was filmed in Aotearoa in 2007 and is due for completion in 2008.

Robert Sullivan and Reina Whaitiri with Briar Grace-Smith (far right)