Miria was born in Rotorua and attended Horohoro Primary School, Knighton Primary School, Avatea Primary School, Peachgrove Intermediate, Western Heights High School, Fairfield College, and Liceo de San Jose. She went on to study at Victoria University graduating with a B.A. in Theatre and Film and becoming Humanities Scholar 2001. Miria has worked for Te Runanga o Ngāti Awa, Taki Rua Productions and is currently working for Huia Publishers and Tawata Productions. Miria has written two plays and a collection of poetry. Her first play, Oho Ake, was a highly commended script in the Playmarket’s National Young Playwrights’ Competition in May 2003. When the play was produced in October 2004 by Tawata Productions, it received the Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Lighting Design by Jennifer Lal, and Award for Sound Design by Stephen Gallagher.
Her second play and what remains, formerly titled Lost Again, was chosen to be workshopped in the Pasifika Playwrights Festival in March 2005. In July of that year, Miria was invited to attend the World Interplay Festival with her play in Townsville, Northern Queensland; she was the first Maori or Pacific Islander ever invited. Subsequently Miria was invited to premiere and what remains internationally at the Pasifika Styles Festival in Cambridge, England. The play was also performed at The Pacific Playhouse in Southwark, London in 2007.
Miria has completed Hikoi, Hikoi, which has already been produced. She has also written a short film screenplay entitled Āporo. She has been commissioned by Radio New Zealand to write a full-length drama and she also writes episodes for Hui Hopping – a Radio New Zealand serial. Her collection of poetry The Wet Season was published by Wai-te-ata Press in 2005.
In 2005, she was a recipient of the Creative New Zealand’s Arts Pasifika Awards “Emerging Pasifik Artist of the Year”.
Biographical sources
- Correspondence from Miria George, 8 and 24 July 2007.
- http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0510/S00081.htm
- http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0510/S00081.htm
Films/Video
- āporo. No details.
Performing Arts
- Oho Ake: The Awakening.
- Dir. Hone Kouka. Gryphon Theatre, Wellington, N.Z. Oct. 2004.
- And What Remains. Wellington, N.Z.: Tawata Press, 2007.
- Dir. Hone Kouka. Performed City Gallery, Wellington, N.Z., 2005; Bats Theatre Wellington, N.Z., 2006; Lyric Hammersmith, London, 2007; University of Cambridge, England, Pacific Playhouse, Southwark, London, 2007. This play was adapted for radio and produced by Radio New Zealand in May 2007.
Poetry
- The Wet Season. Wellington, N.Z.: Wai-te-ata Press, 2005.
Other
- "Awards Honour Pacific Artists." New Zealand Herald 2 Nov 2005: A8.
- Cardy, Tom. "Styles of Leadership." Dominion Post 8 Oct. 2004: B10.
- Paki, Kuiarangi. "Into the Realm of Literature." Tu Mai: Offering an Indigenous New Zealand Perspective 58 (2004): 8-10.
- Tolerton, Jane. "Make Stuff Up, Write it Down, Call it a Poem." North and South 237 (2005): 124-125.
- "Universes in the Head." Mana: The Maori News Magazine for all New Zealanders 70 (2006): 76-77.