Rowley Habib (Rore Hapipi)
Rowley Habib is a playwright, poet and fiction writer who had his first work published in New Zealand and overseas in the 1950s.
Rowley was born in the Taupo region in 1933 and is of Lebanese and Ngati Tuwharetoa descent. Since the early 1950s he has published stories, poems and articles. In 1967 he formed his own theatre company, 'Te Ika A Maui Players', which toured his play 'Death Of The Land' for three years. He has written an unpublished novel, and has written and had produced plays for stage, television and radio, as well as documentaries.
Rowley has won the Maori Affairs Writers Award (1975), the Feltex Award for Best TV Script (1982) and has been a recipient of the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship (1984). Now retired in Te Hikuwai, Taupo, Rowley is able to write to his heart's content.
Rowley was a touring writer with the inaugural 'On the Bus' Contemporary Maori Writers tour in 2001 and was guest writer once again in 2004 when 'On the Bus: Flat Out Brown' toured the Taupo region with the Lake Taupo Arts Festival.
Rowley's writings have been anthologised in numerous collections, most recently in 'Where's Waari? - A History of the Maori through the Short Story' edited by Witi Ihimaera.