Noel Harvey Hilliard (1929-97) was an important novelist and short-story writer in the 1960s and ‘70s, dealing often with Māori characters, with inter-ethnic interactions between them and Pākehā (European-stock New Zealanders), and the challenges these presented. Like his near-contemporary Roderick Finlayson (1904-92), he brought first-hand knowledge and sympathy to his fictional depictions of Māori individuals, communities and attitudes, enhanced in his case by his having a Māori wife, Kiriwai Mete (Ngāti Kahu - Ngā Puhi), and by his own radically left-wing beliefs. He went further than Finlayson in exploring the subjectivities and inward lives of his characters, and whereas the older man was mainly a writer of short stories and novellas, Hilliard, as primarily a novelist, was…
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Citation: Ross, John C.. "Noel Hilliard". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 September 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12316, accessed 19 April 2024.]
