Ruby Macomber

a proudly Indigenous writer, poet, essayist, researcher, emerging academic and freelancer

Ruby Macomber

a proudly Indigenous writer, poet, essayist, researcher, emerging academic and freelancer

Pantograph Punch •

Community-Centred Creativity ‘For Us, By Us’

Moana Fresh embodies the diversity of contemporary Moana lived experiences. Founded in 2019 by Ahilapalapa Rands (Kānaka Maoli, iTaukei, Sāmoan, Pākehā) and Vaimaila Urale (Sāmoan), the community marketplace navigates changing tides while remaining grounded in Indigenous values.I share fries, kawhe and conversation with Urale and Moana Fresh co-manager Claudia Jowitt (iTaukei, Pākehā). We sit just up the road from the location of the original Moana Fresh pop-up, tracing whakapapa lines through a...
Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) •

Cry Sis

Poetry written by Ruby Macomber
Performed by Ruby Macomber & Selina Alefosio

Cry Sis is the weaving of intellect and wisdom through the beautiful words of Ruby Macomber. The insightful voice of a new generation that has a gentle yet defiant stand on the interconnectedness of our Blue Pacific Continent to the call of the Pacific to keep 1.5 alive! The worlds that are presented by Ruby embroider the textured journey of the environment, ancestral metaphors and symbols of resilience against the complex web of the non-believers. Ruby’s words remind us of the frontline force of her generation of Aotearoa New Zealand with Rotuma and the Pacific beyond.

Ruby Macomber
Ruby Macomber is an award-winning poet, essayist and creative non-fiction writer of Rotuman, Scottish and Ngāpuhi descent. She is published in Landfall, Kete Books, Awa Wāhine, Signals and was the 2022 Starling Residency recipient at the New Zealand Young Writers Festival. Ruby is due to be published in the New Zealand Performance Poetry Anthology 2023.

Credits
Poetry written & Performed by Ruby Macomber
Aunty Selina Alefosio
Creative Directors Rachael Rakena & Michael Bridgman
Music and Sound Design Laughton Kora
Director of Photography Pikihuia Haenga-Little
Gaffer Mark Papalii
Production Manager Andrew Croot
Edited by Andrew Suzuki
Compositing Sam Harris
Sound Engineering Tiki Taane

Pasifika Voices 2023 features a collection of gifted Pacific poets joined by indigenous artists to create an artistic, insightful, digitally enhanced offering in this curated series of three video poems.

The Mana Moana - Pasifika Voices collection of video works was created to amplify and support the Pacific to drive global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This collection is the third in a series that began in 2021. These poems have been gathered from our Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa to reflect the voices and experiences of our past and present Poets, providing offerings of wisdom and insight for a new generation.

This initiative is supported by Aotearoa New Zealand and coordinated by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), Storybox, with the support of Pacific Islands poets and artists, to amplify the Pacific voice at COP28.

Series Credits
Special Curator Audrey Brown-Pereira
Directors/Mana Moana Curators Mike Bridgman & Rachael Rakena
Music Director Laughton Kora
Executive Producer Rob Appierdo
Series Producer Amanda Walker
Production Manager Andrew Croot
Post Production Supervisor Ruth Korver
Graphic Design Girish Parbhu

Made with support from Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts, Massey University
Produced by Mana Moana Collective and Storybox

Thanks and acknowledgement to everyone involved in creating these works.

Links
www.sprep.org
https://www.pasifikavoices.com
Apple Podcasts •

Episode 136: Ruby Macomber

This week we continue with our special series for the month of May, where we #CelebratePasifikaWomen, and in Episode 136, we are also celebrating #RotumanLanguageWeek.

Ruby Macomber is an award-winning poet, essayist, researcher, and creative non-fiction writer, with Rotuman, Taveuni, Ngā Puhi and Scottish roots. She has been published in Landfall, Kate Books, Metro, Awa Waine and Starling, and in 2023 she was named the NZ Young Writers Festival - Young Writer in Residence. Alongside her unive...
Basement Theatre •

Koroseta

PLEASE NOTE UNFORTUNATELY THE BASEMENT STUDIO SPACE IS NOT WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE.LOCKOUT: PLEASE ARRIVE 15 MINUTES BEFORE SHOW START TIME. LATECOMERS ADMITTED INTO THE THEATRE AT BASEMENT'S DISCRETION - NO REFUNDS WILL BE GIVEN.THE GOVERNMENT MANDATES MAY BE GONE, BUT OUR FRENEMY COVID (AND A BUNCH OF OTHER NASTY FLUS) ARE STILL HANGING AROUND. HEAD HERE FOR INFORMATION ON WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE FEELING UNWELL AND HAVE A TICKET.

PLEASE NOTE UNFORTUNATELY THE BASEMENT STUDIO SPACE IS NOT WHEELCHAI...

Landfall 243: Autumn 2022

Announcing the winner of the 2022 Charles Brasch Young Writers' Essay Competition

Landfall is New Zealand's foremost and longest-running arts and literary journal. It showcases new fiction and poetry, as well as biographical and critical essays and cultural commentary. Landfall also features art portfolios in full colour and reviews of the latest New Zealand books.

Each issue brims with a mix of vital new work by this country's top new and more established writer's latest reviews of New Zealan...
NZ Young Writers Fest •

Meet the Writers

Each year we appoint a Guest Curator – a young writer under 35, who will curate the festival programme based on their creative vision. This includes creating their own festival events, and selecting the full festival programme. 
We also appoint a Robert Lord Writers Cottage Young Writer in Residence. This Young Writer will spend four weeks at the cottage on a writing project, as well as taking part in the festival and creating events for the programme.

Each year we appoint a Guest Curator – a y...

Metro — MOANA BACK

Using the jawbone of his kuia Muri-ranga-whenua (as the inheritance of cosmological knowledge) and his own blood (or whakapapa) as bait, Māui hauled up new whenua from the depths of the ocean. The whakapapa of the land is not only woven throughout the ocean but the land was birthed by it. As Moana Jackson wrote, “the tīpuna never forgot that, as much as whakapapa tied us to this land, it also tied us to the Pacific Ocean that we call Te Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa”. The iterations of Māui seen throughou...
CulturalWise •

Ruby Macomber | CulturalWise

Otou asa le Ruby Rae Lupe Ah-Wai Macomber. Otou itu te Rotuma Oinafa ma Noa'tau. 

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Ruby is of proud Taveuni, Rotuman, Ngāpuhi and Scottish descent, currently residing in Tāmaki Makaurau. Ruby is completing her LLB/BA majoring in Psychology and Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland where she is a research assistant in Psychology and Pacific Studies. Both her whakapapa and lived experience power her passion for intersectional justice. She is currently Project Lead at Te Kāhui Youth Arts...
Tautai Pacific Arts Trust •

Ruby Macomber — Tautai Pacific Arts Trust

My writing practice has always been mobile. Like many twenty-somethings, I write in the silences between the 9-5, the 5-9, and on the bus back again. I am so comfortable writing in the crevasses of a day that any dedicated time feels over-indulgent. My Fale-ship with Tautai did not change how I create (or where to be honest), but affirmed how important it is for artists to be resourced. How, yes, writing is an accessible art practice. Yes, a good poem can be crafted from almost anywhere. But a r...

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