2025 Caselberg Trust Margaret Egan Cities of Literature writers resident, Sihle Ntuli, of South Africa, will conclude his stay in the city next week.
During his residency, he has met poets and writers, explored local libraries and archives and taken part in the Dunedin Writers & Readers Festival.
A highlight was visiting Ōtākou Marae as part of the festival.
"I was actually catching the bus to the marae and one of the festival organisers saw me waiting.
"So I got to ride with Tāme Iti and Apirana Taylor on the way to the marae.
"I think they thought that maybe I might be intimidated because they are heavily tattooed men, but I understand that was part of the culture.
"We also have tribal markings in some clans in Zulu culture."
Ntuli found parallels between marae traditions of storytelling and lineage and the practices of his people.
"My clan, the Ntuli clan, originates from the Tugela River, that is in KwaZulu-Natal.
"Our origin story finds itself, we are running away from what was said to be cannibals, to the point where dust was scattered everywhere and you could not see a thing.
"So my surname Ntuli means dust and that is the praise song that I would have to sing if I was to come across another Zulu person and sort of explain to them my origin story, which is done through a form of poetry."
A civic moment that stayed with him was the mayoral induction, where Māori voices and Scottish bagpipes sounded together as an emblem of the city’s blended character.
"And I am like, OK, so this is what this means to be in Dunedin, the fact that there are these cultures.
"I have been trying to grasp how they intermingle with one another, is it a happy marriage? Or is it one that is full of conflict."
In South Africa he draws similar comparisons between colonisers such as the British and Afrikaner contingents.
"It is always interesting to see how indigenous people engage with the colonisers and how that relationship exists in the contemporary."
The “wildly different” spring weather in Dunedin has been another influence, as has experiencing the peninsula and harbour the Caselberg home overlooks.
Slightly precarious bus rides along the winding contours of Portobello Rd produced a poem of the same name, which he will gift to the city.
"I was like, I have to write something about this feeling, because every time I go there I am holding on to my seat, jerking and jerking, but then you are like ‘oh, this is such a nice scene’."
Ntuli will complete his Dunedin journey by taking part in the Octagon Poetry Collective monthly reading on Wednesday, November 12 at the New Athenaeum Theatre.
Owele, his latest book of poetry, is available at the University Book Shop.
