Koha - Keri Hulme

The Bone People might be seen not only as a cultural document of immense significance to New Zealanders of all races and as a major novel in its own right but also as an important advance in the development of New Zealand fiction, effecting a new synthesis of the previously separate Māori and Pākehā fictional traditions.

– Christchurch Press book reviewer Peter Simpson on Hulme's 1983 Booker winner 'The Bone People', The Christchurch Press, 1 January 2021

You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you? Bloody hell.

– Author Keri Hulme's reaction when told she'd won the Booker Prize. The Christchurch Press, 1 January 2021

Writing for me was both an escape route, a self-exploration and a coming to terms with both sides of me: taha Māori, taha Pākehā. You could fit things into stories and explain them to yourself ,and it was a big leap to actually go from that ...and show the world little slices of soul.

– Keri Hulme on how she became a writer

The difference will be having a large amount of money and being able to keep doing the things I like — reading, writing, painting, fishing and building.

– Keri Hulme on being asked 'what will you do with the Booker Prize money', The Press, 1 January 2021

I was fascinated to read a review by somebody in Auckland who a) thought I was a man, and b) said "the pain of being Māori is expressed in Hulme's poems", which intrigues me because yes, it is painful sometimes. But it's a continuing joy, you know? It's the strong part, your bones...

– Author Keri Hulme on expressing her Māori whakapapa in her writing

Moeraki is where my heart belongs. You know, everybody has a place that's...if you're Māori it's your turangawaewae. Well that technically for me and for my family is Otago. But very, very early on as children, Moeraki became the highlight of our holidays, of staying with my mother's family, and I learnt all the important things at Moeraki.

– Keri Hulme explains her love of Moeraki, on the east coast of the South Island, at the start of this documentary