Gina Cole
Profile
Gina Cole is a Fijian/Pākehā queer writer living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. Her collection Black Ice Matter won Best First Book Fiction at the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Her fiction, poetry and essays have been widely anthologised. She is Aotearoa’s leading voice of Pasifikafuturism, a term she coined in her PhD thesis. In 2022, Gina published her first novel Na Viro, a science fiction fantasy work of Pasifikafuturism set in a distant future, centred on Pasifika women and Pasifika cultural practices and values.
Gina Cole holds a PhD in creative writing from Massey University, is an Honorary Fellow in Writing at the University of Iowa and the recipient of the 2023 Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency. In 2023 she was inducted as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Literature.
Insight
Gina’s poetry evokes a future world where we live our truth and make manifest our ideas. However, the future is unknown. We learn the language of the future every day as our imagination conceives of it.
“As a queer indigenous woman,” she says, “I cannot separate out those parts of my identity when looking at the issue of equality. When writing about equality in the future I came at it from my point of view as a queer Indigenous woman living in a white settler colonial society predicated on our non-existence. In the Fijian conception of time the past is located ahead of us leading into the future which is behind us. Thus, the colonial history of the Pacific is right in front of our mind’s eye. We live in the present within the ongoing dystopia of the colonial project. I am inspired by Chelsea Watego’s writing about being sovereign. To get up every day and live is to embody an expression of being sovereign as we move into the future.”
Te Reo Glossary
Te Reo Glossary
ākonga
student, pupil
alofa
love, affection (Cook Islands Māori language)
Aotearoa
New Zealand
aroha
love, affection
haere rā
goodbye, farewell
hapū
subtribe, part of a kinship group
ira tangata
term used for intersex in a Māori context
irawhiti
term used for transgender in a Māori context
Itāria
Italy
iwi
extended kinship group descended from a common ancestor and associated with a distinct territory in Aotearoa
kairangahau
researcher
kaitiaki
guardian
kaitiakitanga
guardianship, stewardship
kia kaha ngā wāhine toa
be strong woman warriors
kia ora
hello, greetings
kia orana
hello, greetings (Cook Islands Māori language)
kōrero
conversation, discussion
kuia
female elder
mahi
work
māmā
mother, mum
mana
status, prestige, authority,
Māngere
a major suburb in South Auckland, New Zealand
Māori
Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand
mauri
life force, life principle
moana
ocean, sea
Ōtautahi
Christchurch, city in South Island, New Zealand
Ōtepoti
Dunedin, city in South Island, New Zealand
pākeha
New Zealander of European/foreign descent
peka
branch (of a tree, river, organisation)
Pōneke
Wellington, Capital of New Zealand
rangatahi
youth, young people
takatāpui
queer, gay, rainbow community
Tāmaki Makaurau
Auckland, city in North Island, New Zealand
tapu
sacred, prohibited
tautoko
to support, advocate
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata
Human Rights Commission, New Zealand
Te Kaunihera Wahine o Aotearoa
National Council of Women of New Zealand
Te Kotahitanga
Autonomous Māori Parliament from 1892 to 1902
Te Moana-Nui-ā-Kiwa
the Pacific Ocean
te reo
the Māori language
Te Ropu Wahine Maori Toko i te Ora
Māori Women’s Welfare League
Te Wāhi Wāhine o Tāmaki Makaurau
Auckland Women’s Centre
tikanga
protocol, correct procedure
wāhine
woman, women
wāhine kaha
strong woman/women
waiata
song, chant
waiata taitoko
song of support usually sung after a speech
wairua
spirit, soul
whakapapa
genealogy, lineage
whānau
family, extended family group
whare
house, building