$60,000 Prize Awarded for Poem Imagining the Killing of Early European Explorer

The governing ACT Party has threatened to cut funding to the arts if such works continue receiving support.

A statue of Captain James Cook stands in Sydney's Hyde Park on August 25, 2017. WILLIAM WEST/Getty Images

New Zealand’s governing ACT Party has criticised a decision by Creative NZ to award a poet a NZ$60,000 literary prize for a poem that imagines a violent attack on early explorer Captain James Cook.

The Christchurch-based Tusiata Avia published the poem in 2020 to mark the 250th anniversary of Cook’s arrival in New Zealand.