John Pule
John Puhiatau Pule, of Auckland, received the Insignia of an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit,for services as an author, poet and painter. Mr Pule is a painter, author and poet whose work focuses on narratives in relation to New Zealand and Pacific contexts. He has published two novels: The Shark That Ate The Sun and Burn My Head In Heaven and four books of poems. He co-wrote Hiapo, a study of a traditional Niuean bark cloth art form, with Australian anthropologist Nicholas Thomas. He began exhibiting paintings in 1989, participating in the first important exhibitions to showcase Pacific Island art in the early 1990s, and has since participated at international art biennales throughout the world. A major monograph, Hauaga—The art of John Pule, edited by Nicholas Thomas, was published in 2010 to coincide with the exhibition Hauaga (Arrivals) that toured nationally.