Four Young New Zealanders Set to Take On the World

This is history in the making.

In 2018, Ngā Hine Pūkōrero competed against 44 other high school teams to be crowned the grand slam champions of ‘Word - The Front Line,’ the largest poetry slam in Aotearoa.

Two months later they also won the Trans-Tasman Poetry Youth Slam in Melbourne.

These victories have secured them an invitation to the world’s biggest youth poetry slam. In July they will travel across the Pacific to share their voices with the world at the 2019 Brave New Voices (BNV) Youth Poetry Festival in the United States.

No team from New Zealand has ever competed at BNV before, in fact this is the first time anyone from Australasia will compete and represent their country at this prestigious event.

Founded in 1996, Brave New Voices is the largest international Youth Poetry Slam Festival in the world. Every year, over 500 young poets, their mentors, and the nation’s leading artists and cultural workers convene in a different U.S. city for 4-5 days of arts education, artistic expression, and civic engagement. Over 50 teams compete in the poetry slam, with a finals event that regularly draws thousands of audience members and has been in held in historic venues such as The Apollo Theatre in Harlem New York. The finale of Brave New Voices in 2008 and 2010 was aired on HBO as part of a documentary series.

Ngā Hine Pūkōrero are a group of four Rangatahi Māori whose work is richly woven with themes of indigenous and gender issues. They use Waiata, Karakia and Te Reo Māori throughout their poetry. They dismantle stereotypes, confront the challenges their generation faces and share new perspectives that until now have rarely been heard.

Support these brave new voices to take up this once in a lifetime opportunity and represent Aotearoa on the world stage.