Tonight on National Radio at 9.33 precisely is the second part of a three-part series on the making of the new Hone Tuwhare CD. Lynn Freeman will be talking to the producer of the CD, Charlotte Yates, who is working on her interpretation of a Tuwhare poem. They’ll also be talking about some of the other musicians who are doing setting the Maori poet’s work to music, including Mahinarangi Tocker, Hinemoana Baker and Goldenhorse.

Hone sure has been in the limelight recently, having been awarded an honorary Doctor of Literature earlier this month in a ceremony down in Port Chalmers public library. Jenny Gibbs handed out the University of Auckland degrees to both Hone and Ralph Hotere. Don’t remember reading much Hotere? Well, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon, said it was fitting they were being honoured jointly as Ralph Hotere had incorporated poetry into many of his works, including the poetry of Hone Tuwhare.

Ralph Hotere’s works had ‘always been distinguished by the way they engage with the important political and social issues of our time’, said Professor McCutcheon. ‘These have ranged from nuclear testing to the power of the Maori language.’ And of course, Hotere had previously studied at the Auckland College of Education, now part of the University’s Faculty of Education.

These two are part of a recent rash of honorary doctorates of literature – three last month alone. Kevin Ireland got one from Massey University. And then there was Fran Walsh – her second actually, as both she and Peter Jackson got them from Massey in 2001 – she got hers this time from Victoria University for her contribution to scriptwriting and the motion picture industry. Didn’t know you could have two! Apparently she compared receiving an honorary doctorate to being photographed on a mountain summit without having climbed it, and said she had asked her children to call her ‘Dr Dr Hons, just around the house’. Albert Wendt got one on the same day for his contribution to Pacific and New Zealand literature over the last 40 years.

Don’t know why anyone actually gets the degree first at all any more. Just become a writing legend, or even a really good artist, and you won’t even have to think about your student loan. Easy peasy.