Faith Wilson
Faith Wilson (Sāmoa|Germany, Clan Gunn|England), is a writer and editor who grew up in the Waikato but now lives in Tāmaki Makaurau. She is the founder of Saufo`i Press that publishes poetry books by Pacific poets in Aotearoa.
She graduated with a Master of Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters in 2014, where she was awarded the Biggs Poetry Prize. With a group of other editors and writers, she edited two issues of Tupuranga: A Journal of Writing from Aotearoa. She is also a staff writer at The Pantograph Punch and has published writing in many local and international journals. In 2017 she was a summer resident at Plug In ICA in Winnipeg, Canada, a writing residency facilitated by Chris Kraus. She is also currently writing her own book of poetry that she plans to publish with Saufo`i Press.
Photo by Stephen Barker
What does leadership look like to you?
Faith: Leading from the heart, doing everything with alofa/aroha and from a place of empathy and understanding. This is the kind of leader I strive to be, although I am definitely still learning and often failing at this! As I get older, I’m learning more that great leadership is humble, generous and open. It’s being able to be held accountable, and to learn and grow from your community. It’s not self-centred, and it always looks to creating genuine connections based on alofa.
What are you hoping to get out of this experience?
Faith: To become the leader I described above! To learn from the other amazing people taking part, to connect and to share ideas. I am not sure what to expect, but I want to come away from it feeling challenged, but more confident in what I do. To gain more skills that will enable me to serve, and keep serving, the communities that have sustained me.
How does your community show up in your practice?
Faith: I think the deeper I choose to serve, the more they show up. Writing can be a really solitary art – and for a long time I used writing to work through my own trauma and anxiety and in that way it was necessarily quite a personal act. As I’ve healed over the years, or am in a state and process of healing, I am in a stronger and more capable place where I can serve my community through both my writing, and through editing, and now, through publishing. So for a long time I guess my community held me up and gave me space to write, and to mess up and to pop off on Twitter, and now I’m like okay, it’s time for me to help nurture the little brown girls in their combat boots and hoop earrings and help them channel their voices.
