Haina Stewart

She was born in Wellington and educated at Bangkok Patana School, Bangkok, and St Joseph’s College. She worked as a dental assistant in Wellington before getting married and travelling overseas to Australia and Papua New Guinea where she lived for a couple of years. She came back to New Zealand in 1988; it was at this time that she started to write seriously. In the late 1970s, she went to Patricia Grace’s first writers’ workshop where she wrote some pieces which her brother Rangimoana Taylor used in Te Whakaari in their first production at the Depot in the late 1970s. She acted in Hone Tuwhare’s play In the Wilderness Without a Hat. During this time she began writing her play Iwitaia. She returned to Papua New Guinea and continued to write and completed the play on her return to New Zealand in 1990. Iwitaia was performed at the Depot at the end of 1991, directed by Rangimoana Taylor and produced by Ann Keating. Haina is currently writing another play and some children’s stories. She is a member of a women’s writing group in Wellington and is a member of Nga Puna Waihanga and Tu Whakaari.

Biographical sources

• Interview with Stewart: Aug. 1992.