We Māori: Point of View in Māori Biofiction

Abstract

Point of view is the novelist’s great gift and restriction, positioning the narrative and determining what’s included and excluded. In biofiction that explores the lives of historical Indigenous figures, the challenge of point of view demands an imaginative leap that not all fiction writers are prepared or able to make. Sherman Alexie’s notion of tribal sovereignty extending to culture suggests the ethical issues in the field, including appropriation or distortion of Indigenous experience, and the violation of boundaries (psychic, familial, religious). In discussing the issues faced in writing the novel Rangatira (2011), this article interrogates Melissa Kennedy’s claim that Wulf by Hamish Clayton (2011) is ‘imagining a Maori viewpoint’ [sic] without including a Māori point of view.