Luamanuvao and Karlo Mila, who won the 'Best First Book Award for Poetry' at the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards. (Office of Hon Luamanuvao Winnie Laban)

Hon Luamanuvao Winnie Laban

Associate Minister of Pacific Island

25 July 2006 Media Statement

Laban congratulates award-winning poet Karlo Mila

Associate Minister of Pacific Island Affairs, Luamanuvao Winnie Laban, today congratulated Karlo Mila for winning the 'Best First Book Award for Poetry' at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.

Karlo Mila was awarded the New Zealand Society of Authors Jessie Mackay Best First Book Award for Poetry for her book 'Dream Fish Floating', which was published by Huia Publishers in 2005.

"I am very proud to have launched 'Dream Fish Floating', which is a book of great strength, beauty and courage  Karlo's words reflect the journeys of our Pacific communities in New Zealand," Luamanuvao Winnie Laban said.

"Karlo Mila is a leading poet of the second generation of Pacific poets writing in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is a New Zealand-born Pacific poet of Tongan, Palagi and Samoan descent.

"Artists such as Karlo have the skill, the creativity and the art to open up our imagination, and illustrate to the world who we are and where we come from."

"This award reminds us that we are all of the Pacific, and that our art and culture contribute to a strong assertion of New Zealand identity as a unique and creative Pacific nation," Luamanuvao Winnie Laban said.

ENDS

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