John Hugh Moffatt

Ngāti Raukawa

1927 - 2006

John Moffatt was born in Otaki and was educated at Otaki State School and Horowhenua College. At the age of fifteen he began working on a dairy farm and remained in farming until the age of fifty. He worked in a plant nursery but after four years had to stop due to arthritis. Moffatt wrote short stories and poems which were published in Arthritis News, Te Ao Hou and other anthologies. His non-fiction reports were published in local newspapers. In 1982 he was co-founder of the Horowhenua Writers’ Group and edited the first of three anthologies by the Horowhenua Writers’ Group. This first collection was called Golden Bones because Moffatt was receiving "gold treatment" for arthritis at the time. In 1996 Moffatt won the Arthritis Poetry competition for his poem "Blood Relations" and was awarded second place in 1995 with his poem "Words."

Biographical sources

  • Correspondence with Moffatt, 31 Jan. and 5 Aug. 1998, 5 July 2004 and 16 June 2005.
  • Huia Short Stories 1995. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia Publishers, 1995. 134-135.

    Fiction

  • "The Homecoming." Te Ao Hou 56 (1966): 7.
  • A story about the homecoming of urbanised Robert Jones who is confronted with his Māori heritage and whanau when he attends his father’s tangi.
  • "End of the Line." Golden Bones: Horowhenua Writers Group. Ed. J. H. Moffatt. Ltd Ed. Levin, N.Z.: Published for Horowhenua Writers Group by Concept Graphics, 1985. 12-15.
  • An old man reaching the end of his life recounts his dramatic meeting with Jenny.
  • "Special Firing." Golden Bones: Horowhenua Writers Group. Ed. J. H. Moffatt. Ltd Ed. Levin, N.Z.: Published for Horowhenua Writers Group by Concept Graphics, 1985. 44-52.
  • A mystery story of a hitchhiker’s encounter with a mad potter and his girlfriend.
  • "Cry of a Black Bird." Golden Bones: Horowhenua Writers Group. Ed. J. H. Moffatt. Ltd Ed. Levin, N.Z.: Published for Horowhenua Writers Group by Concept Graphics, 1985. 76-78.
  • An assignment to write a ghost story has an unexpected outcome.
  • "Te Taonga." Huia Short Stories 1995. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia Publishers, 1995. 9-12.
  • The speaker recalls his ancestors’ battle to defend their pa and his tupuna Pipito’s courageous stance in sacrificing his life for his people. This story was a finalist in the Huia Publishers Māori Writers short story competitions of 1995.
  • "Pride of Place, or, Close to the Bone." Huia Short Stories 1997. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia, 1997. 131-135.
  • A young medical student devises a crafty scheme to get the best white baiting position on the lagoon.
  • "Quits" Chronicle Jan. 31 1998. No further details.
  • This story tells of how Joe, beaten in a chance game of pool in a bar, evens the score and leaves both parties (winning) happy.
  • "Justice." Huia Short Stories 3. Wellington, N.Z.: Huia, 1999. 155-158.

  • Non-fiction

  • "Yesterday." Coastlines. Palmerston North, N.Z.: Dunmore, Greater Otaki Library Trust (G.O.L.T.), 2001. 176-178.
  • Moffatt writes that this is ‘an essay comparing aspects of farming on Highway One in the past and today.’

    • Poetry

  • Circlet.
  • Moffatt says this poem and the following two poems would have been published in his writers club book.
  • Compromise.
  • A Monologue.
  • Day Dream.
  • Possibly unpublished. This poem was included in a letter dated 16 June 2005 from Moffatt to me. Moffatt writes: "Day Dream began with me sitting on the beach…then the imagination took over."
  • "Otaki Beach, March 13, 1995." ibid. 3.
  • A poem articulating the grief of watching a stranded whale slowly die on the beach.
  • "Through a Microscope." [First line] Seen through a Window and Other Poems: Horowhenua Writers Group. Levin: Sundial Productions, 1996. 1.
  • A short reflection on the revelatory qualities of a poem.
  • "That’s Life." [First line] Seen through a Window and Other Poems: Horowhenua Writers Group. Levin: Sundial Productions, 1996. 11.
  • The poet likens the uncertainties of life to a surfer tenuously dependent on the nature of the waves.
  • "Words." [First line] Seen through a Window and Other Poems: Horowhenua Writers Group. Levin: Sundial Productions, 1996. 12.
  • A poem about the expressive quality of words.
  • "The Generation Gap." Seen through a Window and Other Poems: Horowhenua Writers Group. Levin: Sundial Productions, 1996. 20.
  • A poem about different perspectives of time.
  • "Contemplation." Seen through a Window and Other Poems: Horowhenua Writers Group. Levin: Sundial Productions, 1996. 21.
  • A poem about the elusive nature of creative inspiration.
  • "Bird Fancier." Seen through a Window and Other Poems: Horowhenua Writers Group. Levin: Sundial Productions, 1996. 29.
  • In this poem the speaker acknowledges a certain interdependence between himself and the bird population he feeds.
  • "Sexuality." Seen through a Window and Other Poems: Horowhenua Writers Group. Levin: Sundial Productions, 1996. 50.
  • A poem in which the children’s game of making daisy chains elicits a strong reaction.
  • "A Toast." Coastlines. Palmerston North, N.Z.: Dunmore, Greater Otaki Library Trust (G.O.L.T.), 2001. 164.
  • Moffatt writes that this poem is about ‘a group in a pub drinking to their mate killed while driving under the influence.’
  • Naumai: Selected Stories, Memoir and Poems. Levin, N.Z.:Horowhenua Writers’ Group, 2006.

  • Traditional

  • "He Tangi Mo Tana Tamaiti/A Lament For His Son." Dictated by Te Whatu. Nga Moteatea: He Maramara Rere No Nga Waka Maha: The Songs: Scattered Pieces From Many Canoe Areas. Comp. Apirana Ngata and trans. Pei Te Hurinui. Part 2. Wellington, N.Z.: Published for the Polynesian Society by A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1961.
  • Nga Moteatea: He Maramara Rere No Nga Waka Maha: The Songs: Scattered Pieces From Many Canoe Areas. Part II. Collected by A. T. Ngata and translated by Pei Te Hurinui. Wellington, N.Z.: Published for the Polynesian Society by A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1961. 184-185.

    Other

  • "John Hugh Moffatt." http://www.nzobits.co.nz/?p=4006