Marama Salsano

Iwi/Hapū Affiliations

Ngāi Tūhoe, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Wairere 

Īmera: marama.salsano@twoa.ac.nz

Relevant Qualifications

PhD (under examination): Creative Writing, International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington

MA: Māori Cultural Studies / Tikanga Māori, University of Waikato

MA: Creative Writing, International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington

GradDipTeach: Secondary Teaching, University of Waikato

GradDipArts: English, Massey University

Bachelor of Business Studies: Accountancy, Massey University 

2010: Bachelor of Business Studies, Massey University 

Expertise

As a writer-scholar, editor, multidisciplinary artist, and former high school English teacher, Marama works within the broad fields of Māori and Indigenous Literary Studies, and Toi Māori. Her PhD project explores Indigenous multigenre and Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki creativity. Marama has co-edited a limited-edition e-zine of Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki writing called Haumi, and she co-edited the anthology To Feel The Earth as One’s Skin: Indigenous Visual Poetry. Her current visual work includes textile art/banners/visual poetry, and contemporary upoko whakairo paintings.

Key Contributions  

Peer reviewed

  • “Cyberspace is an island in Oceania: A close reading of Te Kuharere Tapes by @tekahureremoa.” (2024). An Ocean of Wonder: The Fantastic in the Pacific, edited by Cristina Bacchilega, ku’ualoha ho’omanawanui & Joyce Pualani Warren, University of Hawai’i Press, pp. 270-279.

  • “Re-weaving Te-Moana-nui-a-Kiwa: Wāhine Māori bodies in short fiction.” (2024). Literature Compass Special Issue: Global visions from Oceania, edited by Bonnie Etherington & Tina Makereti.

  • Salsano, Marama, & Taito, Mere. (2024). “HAERENGA/SAL FẠIVA: Two Indigenous Women and Their Creative Practice Doctoral Journeys.” Waka Kuaka | Journal of the Polynesian Society, SPECIAL ISSUE: in a room, in a house, on an island, in an ocean, edited by Andrea Low & Marcia Leenen-Young, The Polynesian Society (Inc.), vol. 133, pp. 77-95.

Selected other writing

  • Lara Felsing, Marama Salsano & Astra Papachristodoulou (Eds.). (2024). To Feel the Earth as One’s Skin: An Anthology of Indigenous Visual Poetry. Poem Atlas.

  • Salsano, Marama, Apiata, Ammon Hāwea, & Taito, Mere. (2024). “Three Pacific writers from Aotearoa discuss Indigenous languages and visual poetry.” To Feel the Earth as One’s Skin: An Anthology of Indigenous Visual Poetry. Poem Atlas.

  • “An ontological view of IndigiZines within the secondary English classroom in Aotearoa.” (2016). English in Aotearoa, New Zealand Association for the Teaching of English, vol. 90, pp. 36-47.

  • “Whakapapa as literary analysis within the NCEA English classroom.” (2016). English in Aotearoa, New Zealand Association for the Teaching of English, vol. 89, pp. 36-43.

  • Salsano, Marama, & Moriarty, Hariata. (2020). “Kaupapa Vegan: Two Indigenous Views.” New Zealand Vegan, Summer 2020, pp. 30-31.

Selected creative work

  • “Clothing Care Labels” “Stories” [poems] (2024). Yellow Medicine Review.

  • “Night conversations at the urupā (a pocketful of pouhine)” [poem] (2024). Turbine.

  • “this tauiwi house” [poem] (2024). Journal of Global Indigeneity.

  • “Māhaki blood” [poem] (2024). Badapplegay.

  • “Māori clay poems”; “Mini bisexual poems” [scratch card poems] (2024). Poem Atlas.

  • “Stars of Hood Street” [short story] (2023). Huia Short Stories 10: Contemporary Māori Fiction, Huia Publishers, 75-85.

  • “WHENUA” “Tino Rangatiratanga emerges from whenua” [textile banners] (2024). Maranga! Matika! - Get up! Stand up! Exhibition, Rotorua Arts Village, NZ.

  • Banff Open Studio & combined Photographic Exhibition [mixed media] (2023), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Studio & Project Space, Banff, Canada.

  • Taramainuku [paintings] (2023). Toi o Te Tau Hou: Art of the New Year Exhibition. Te Ohu Whakaita Charitable Trust, Nancy Caiger Gallery, Kirikiriroa, NZ.

Selected conferences

  • “Healing Indigenous bodies through poetry, art and play.” (2024). Convenor: Marama Salsano. Panellists: Ammon Hāwea Apiata, Julz Nonoa & Kiri Leach (Hau Tu Tū Aotearoa), Cultural Studies Association of Australasia (CSAA2024) Conference, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

  • “An Ocean of Wonder: Sustaining Indigenous Pacific Traditions and Communities into the Future.” (2024).  Chair: Cristina Bacchilega. Forum Panellists: Lehua Parker, Caryn Lesuma, Marama Salsano, Māhealani Ahia. Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society, Albuquerque Convention Centre, New Mexico.

  • “Critical Māhaki intellectual histories.” (2023). New Zealand Historical Association Conference, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ.

  • “This Tauiwi House: Indigenous bodies in settler colonial institutions.” (2023). Australian Association for Pacific Studies Conference, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

  • “Reweaving our universe: A series of waiata aroha to my kuia, Hinetapuārau.” (2023). Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania Annual Meeting, Kona, Hawai’i.

  • “Ghosts, bones and sinew: Contemplating Indigenous researchers in settler institutions via the short story in progress, “Archives”.” (2022). National Oral History Association of New Zealand Conference: Memory, Oral History and Material Culture, Victoria University, Pōneke, NZ.

Meet the Team