Thanks to annual funding form Creative New Zealand, the 2005 Maori Writers Festival will mark another year in which Maori literature has continued to win more support at home and abroad. This year's festival, to be held in Wellington from 28 September to 1 October, has been organised by the Maori Literature Trust in partnership with the New Zealand Book Council and Toi Maori Aotearoa. Now in its fifth year the festival is an important event for the Maori literature scene and aims to celebrate the diversity of Maori writing across various genres. The three-day celebration of Indigenous New Zealand writing will incorporate the announcement of the winners of the E tuhi! Get Writing! Awards for Maori Writers, supported with a $30,000 grant from Creative New Zealand through Te Waka Toi. Robyn Bargh, Chair of the Maori Literature Trust, says that Maori writers are really making their mark and that "the festival is an opportunity to sample what's happening in Maori writing today." Examples of success include James George, who was a finalist in the Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize and Kelly Ana Morey, who was a finalist in the Kiriyama Prize. Patricia Grace was named an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Icon and her novel, “Tu”, won the Deutz Medal for Fiction and Poetry at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. Creative New Zealand's long-term commitment to the development of Indigenous writing is reflected in its support for The New Zealand Book Council, which receives annual funding ($145,000 in 2005) and Toi Maori Aotearoa, which receives three-year funding ($665,000 per year from 2004 to 2006) from Creative New Zealand for its programmes of activity. For further information, CLICK HERE