Tusiata Avia is a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 page and performance poet born to a Samoan father and Palagi (New Zealand European) mother. Her poetry explores Pacifica

Pacifica

-Art:* Pacifica , an eight-story feminine figure built in 1938 by Ralph Stackpole for the Golden Gate International Exposition-Places:* Pacifica, California, a city in the United States** Pacifica Pier, a fishing pier...

and cross-cultural themes, as well as the borders between traditional and contemporary life, and between place and the self.

She has toured both nationally and internationally performing her solo show Wild Dogs Under My Skirt which premiered at the 2002 Dunedin Fringe Festival.

Her first book of poetry, also titled Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, was published by Victoria University Press in 2004.

Avia has also written children's books (Mele and the Fofo, 2004 & The Song, 2002).

Avia won the 2005 Fullbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency at the University of Hawai'i.

In 2006 Avia was shortlisted for the Prize in Modern Letters.

Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals such as Takahe, Sport and Turbine.