Albert Wendt’s Queen's Birthday Honour ‘Well Deserved’

June 11, 2013

Albert Wendt’s Queen's Birthday Honour ‘Well Deserved’

Manukau Institute of Technology is applauding Maualaivao Albert Wendt ONZ, CNZM on being made a member of the Order of New Zealand, for services to New Zealand.

The 73-year-old’s recent award is the country's highest royal honour and a status restricted to 20 living people at any time.

Writer, poet and artist, Albert Wendt is also an emeritus professor in the University of Auckland's English department and last year his family honoured him with a matai (chiefly) title, Maualaivao, from his late father's village, Malie.

Maualaivao Albert is a guest lecturer at Manukau Institute of Technology, a position he has held for the past three years. He teaches Pacific literature to first year Bachelor of Creative Arts students specialising in creative writing.

Manukau Institute of Technology’s Head of School - Creative Writing, Robert Sullivan says Albert Wendt’s ‘contribution to Pacific literature as a foundational figure is huge’ and his Queens Birthday Honour is ‘well deserved’.
“Albert really has carried an entire literature by telling stories from Samoa and from the Samoan experience from within New Zealand society since the 1960s,” he says.

Professor Wendt has recently completed his series of lectures at MIT for the year and Robert Sullivan says the students are very fortunate to have the experience and the insights he brings from a lifetime of writing to their classroom.

“Our students come here to learn how to tell their life stories and stories they want to share about South Auckland and to have someone of Albert’s stature available on such a personal level is so valuable,” he says.

“He is a great role model. The students’ think, if Albert can do it, so can I.”

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