Samoan poet, performer and writer Tusiata Avia became the first Pasifika woman to win the New Zealand Prime Minister's Award for Literature, an accolade she didn't quite envision for herself growing up in a period of dawn raids in 1970s, 1980s Christchurch.

Along with the 2023 prestigious award, she has also been appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to poetry and the arts, more accolades in contrast to those early doubts as a young teen growing up in Aotearoa's South Island.

"Which was a terrible time to be a brown girl," Avia told ABC’s Nesia Daily.

"It was a time of a lot of social and racial unrest, big protests in the streets here. So I got a lot of good training about growing up in a very racist environment, basically."

Encouraged by a school teacher, Avia discovered writing around the age of 10.

"I think because of the climate that I was in, I took it into my head that brown girls like me do not become writers. So I gave it up," she said.

"And it took me until I was really in my early thirties to claim that back for myself and say no, actually I am really good at this and this is what I want."

After a creative career spanning decades, Avia has established herself as a leading Pacific poet, performer and writer.

"If I could speak back to my 15-year-old self, I would say you are entitled to do what you love. And what you are good at. You're allowed," she said.

"Because my 15-year-old self didn't think I was allowed and didn't believe that I had the entitlement.

"Often when I go into schools I say to kids, you're allowed. And whatever it is that you love is usually what you're good at, and that's the path to follow in life, as far as I'm concerned."

Perhaps fortuitously named, Tusiata in Samoan means artist.

She shares that her writing is a safe space to be herself.

"This is the place where I'm free to express all this stuff. I'm actually a really nice person. People see my writing, and see my shows and think, 'Oh my gosh, she's really hard core and really angry".

"But I'm not, well, I don't present like that in normal life. But my writing gives me the stage to say the stuff that I think.

"You know, it's personal, but what I've discovered over the last 23 years of doing this, is that I'm very often speaking for other, not just Pacific women, but other people of colour."

Described as a provocative celebration of what it is to be a Samoan woman, Wild Dogs Under my skirt is adapted from Avia's poetry collection written in 2004, and is touring Australia in April.

Directed by Anapela Polata'ivao, who Avia describes as having "a main line to all the Pacific spirits" and "anchors them on stage", performers also include Stacey Leilua, Joanna Mika-Toloa, Petmal Lam and Ilaisaane Green.

"On a surface level it is about Samoan women and our experience in the world. But what I've learned after many years of performing this around the world, is that it speaks across cultures," Avia said.

"It speaks across those divides, because it speaks about universal things like family violence, like love, like racism, like the experience of growing up brown.

The touring show will be held in venues in the Gold Coast (April 6th), Wollongong (April 10-13) and Sydney (April 18-20).

"I don't think you can leave there without some tears running down your face. Especially the ending, it's quite a cathartic experience for the cast and the audience."

Source ABC