Bruce Richard Stewart (5 August 1936 – 28 June 2017) was a New Zealand fiction writer and dramatist of Ngāti Raukawa Te Arawa descent. Stewart's work often expresses the anger, the confused loyalties, and the spiritual aspirations of late-twentieth-century Māori. He set up a marae called Tapu Te Ranga in the 1970s in Island Bay in Wellington, and lived there until his death.

Biography

Stewart was born in Hamilton. His Pākehā biological father had no involvement with him, and his Māori mother Molly Daphne Hirini has said that her Tainui tribe frowned on mixed-race children. Stewart got his name from his stepfather Donald Lewis Stewart, who married Molly Hirini in 1938. Molly died in 1954. Stewart grew up in Masterton and was educated at Wairarapa College. Stewart lived mainly in Wellington, where he founded Tapu Te Ranga Marae at Island Bay in the 1970s. This was a centre for debate and education in Māori culture and protocol and for the redevelopment of native bush until destroyed by fire in 2019. Stewart was president of Ngā Puna Waihanga (Maori Writers and Artists Society) in 1982.

Published and televised

Broken Arse was published in Into the World of Light (1982) and Stewart later rewrote it as a playscript, which was performed in Wellington in 1990 as part of the New Zealand Festival at the Depot Theatre as part of the Theatre Marae season by Te Rākau Hua o Te Wao Tapu. It was published by Victoria University Press in 1991.

Books

Performance

Reviews of performance at Depot Theatre Evening Post p.24; 26 Feb 1990. Budd, Susan. Dominion p.11; 6 Mar 1990. Cooke, Patricia. Dominion Sunday Times p.18; 11 Mar 1990. Welch, Denis. Listener 128(2634):108; 10 Sep 1990.

Death

Stewart died at Tapu Te Ranga on 28 June 2017.