Where is haiku in New Zealand going?

Plenary Session, Haiku Aotearoa, April 20, 2008, Christchurch.

Barbara Strang (chair) opened the session and briefly introduced the panel: Sandra Simpson (compiler HaikuNewZ, NZPS website), Laurice Gilbert (national co-ordinator/president NZPS), Jeffrey Harpeng (Brisbane) and Beverley George (president HaikuOz). and invited members to talk about their positions.

  • Sandra Simpson outlined the history of Haiku NewZ web pages. The project was initiated at Haiku Aotearoa 2005. After an unsuccessful attempt to create a separate NZ haiku site, a decision was made to accept an invitation to post haiku news on the  existing NZPS website. Haiku NewZ began in June, 2006. Sandra warmly thanked Laurice (and Gillian Cameron, former NZPS president) for their welcome and support and expressed appreciation for the abundant space provided. She emphasised that the website is "owned" by the haiku community and welcomed any suggestions for improvements.
  • Laurice Gilbert gave a brief history of her position and expressed her enjoyment of her work, despite funding being halved by Creative New Zealand (CNZ). Her key goal is to make NZPS a national organisation - a departure from its Wellington origin. She works with a small national committee with members throughout New Zealand. About 100 new members have joined during her time in office. Laurice said that the "haiku group fits in well" and that the "biggest number of hits on the website come from haiku writers". She expressed appreciation to Signify, which donated the site and gives help when requested. She also welcomed more input from members.
  • Jeffrey Harpeng noted the similarly disparate geographical distribution of haiku writers in Australia: A few groups plus individuals. Pardalote Press of Tasmania is the main producer of haiku books. Jeff recommended the use of closed blogs for mutual editing, as well as for displaying finished work. He saw this as a ready way for NZ and Oz writers to work together. 
  • Beverley George also expressed her wish to work more closely with NZ. In her former role as editor of Yellow Moon she had a policy of being equally welcoming to Australian and NZ writers. HaikuOz was founded by Jan Bostok and John Bird two years ago when "things were foundering". Members on her committee include: Lyn Reeves (vice-president), Robyn Smith (webmaster), Graham Nunn (secretary), as well as regional/state representatives (NSW, WA, SA, Tasmania, Queensland). Beverley reminded the conference of the Pacific Rim Haiku Conference, September 22-25, 2009, where speakers will include Martin Lucas (UK) and Jim Kacian (US).

The following comments were made from the floor in response to Barbara's invitation.

1. Praise for website haiku pages (Karen Butterworth, Nola Borrell, Cyril Childs).
Owen Bullock found the site useful for Wairakei students, but noted that the site was "often" down. He also recommended the addition of bibliographic haiku references.

2. National emphasis. Owen said he was "encouraged" by the national emphasis of NZPS. (Sandra - and Karen - invited further membership.)

3. CNZ funding for NZPS. Cyril Childs asked if CNZ gave reasons for reducing funding for NZPS. The short answer: No.
He inquired if "the firm" providing services (Signify) planned to remain in business long-term? Laurice said she was "hopeful", though much was pro-bono work.

4. Support for blogs. Karen thought this idea useful for beginners and a way of redressing the big regional gaps, as well as for Oz-NZ communication. She made a special plea for Auckland haiku writers to be involved.

Jeff said that Skype was inexpensive technology for "group talking" and could be downloaded. (Sandra will post information on the website.) Jo Preston indicated that Geocities sets up free websites, as does www.googlepageswordpress. com
Haibun Today is a blog, run as a website. (Jo was invited to write information for HaikuNewZ, NZPS website and agreed to do so.)

5. Publication (hard copy) of archives on the website "some time" was advocated by Karen.

6. Trans-Tasman haibun anthology planned. Jeff and Jo will give information to Sandra for the website.

7. Whether to establish a separate Haiku Society in NZ?
Jo argued that it would make it easier to apply for funding and to get publicity. "Was there any good reason why not?"

In response to Karen's question, "Who will lead it?", she replied that work is already done on a national basis (conferences, anthology).

Bevan Greenslade pointed out that a registered organisation has to "keep the books".

Jeff referred to the Writers' Centre in Queensland with 6 staff members.

Several members referred to the difficulty of getting funding (Sandra, Richard von Sturmer - who noted parallel difficulties in getting funding for film, Karen who suggested lobbying NZ Society of Authors).

Bevan asked: "Why breast-beat re CNZ? We have products' to sell!", whereupon Karen challenged Bevan to follow through. Bevan hastily retreated, but said he would be willing to do legal work.

Nola underlined the value of having a national contact person for the NZ haiku community: both for NZ writers and for overseas haiku communities.

Lack of time meant that this discussion was not developed further.

For information re origins and aims of HaikuOz, see http://www.haikuoz.org/about_haikuoz/

Editor's note: Thanks to Nola Borrell for both taking notes at the discussion and providing them to the website.

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