John Pule

John Puhiatau Pule (born 18 April 1962) is a Niuean artist, novelist and poet. The Queensland Art Gallery describes him as "one of the Pacific's most significant artists".

Early life Pule was born on 13 April 1962 in Liku, Niue, and arrived in New Zealand in 1964. He was educated at Mount Albert Grammar School in Auckland. After leaving school he spent time working on a dairy farm and in factories and doing labouring jobs.

Literature Describing the beginning of his literary career, Pule explained: "I just wanted to write about growing up in New Zealand, and about being the youngest of 17 kids and about migration—but I wasn't sure how to organise ideas, so I just started writing."

He also described his writing as a means of "decolonizing his mind". was published in 1992. It relates some of his early life experiences and the immigrant experience. (Tugi e ulu haaku he langi) followed in 2000, and Restless people (Tagata kapakiloi) in 2004.

His published poetry includes Sonnets to Van Gogh and Providence (1982), Flowers after the Sun (1984) and The Bond of Time: An Epic Love Poem (1985, 2nd ed. 1998, 3rd ed. 2014). In the 2012 Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours, Pule was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services as an author, poet and painter. He was awarded the Ursula Bethell Residency in Creative Writing at the University of Canterbury in 2013.

Poetry by Pule was included in UPU, a curation of Pacific Island writers' work which was first presented at the Silo Theatre as part of the Auckland Arts Festival in March 2020. UPU was remounted as part of the Kia Mau Festival in Wellington in June 2021.

Artwork Pule's artwork includes painting, drawing, printmaking, film-making and performance. The topics of his work include Niuean cosmology and Christianity, as well as perspectives on migration and colonialism.

Since 1991 Pule has exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand, Australia, Europe, the USA, the Pacific and Asia. From 1996 to present he has held solo exhibitions in New Zealand, and in Melbourne Australia at the Karen Woodbury Gallery. In 2005 he exhibited at the Galerie Romerapotheke in Zurich.

Burn My Head in Heaven is a set of ten drawings combining poetry from his novel of the same name and imagery to tell various stories about living as both a Niuean and New Zealander.

The Pulenoa Triptych highlights themes of colonisation and cultural identity. When asked about the painting Pule noted "I wanted to express concerns at the way countries like America and France test their nuclear powers and Star Wars programme using the ocean in our backyard as the site".

Pule's work is held in numerous public and private collections including the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington; Chartwell Trust Collection, Auckland; Wellington High Court, Wellington; and the National Museum of Scotland, Scotland.