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Ruby Mae Hinepunui Solly (born 1996) is a New Zealand poet, taonga pūoro practitioner, cellist, composer, music therapist and scriptwriter.

Life and career

Background and education

Solly has Māori, Pākehā and Jewish heritage. She is part of the iwi (tribes) of Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha. She was born near Mount Ruapehu, grew up around Tūrangi, Taupō, and Rotorua, and at age 17 moved to Wellington. She identifies as takatāpui (queer).

Solly grew up in a musical family. Her mother is a ukelele teacher, and her stepfather was part of the Hamilton County Bluegrass Band. She learned to play the kōauau at primary school. At age eight she began to play the cello, and she has written about experiencing racism as she trained to be a classical musician. At age 14 she performed with the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra.

Solly holds a bachelor's degree of music (in jazz performance) and a master's degree in musical therapy. As of 2023 she is completing a PhD in public health at Massey University, focusing on the use of taonga pūoro (traditional Māori musical instruments) in therapeutic mental health settings.

Poetry

Tōku Papa, Solly's first poetry collection, was published in 2021. It was long-listed for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. It focuses on her relationship with her father and whakapapa. Reviewer Jessie Neilson for Takahē described the work as demonstrating "an inner strength, and ... a deep respect for the land and its people, and all that both can offer for future generations".

Her second poetry collection, The Artist, was published in 2023. A review by Robert Sullivan said that for "readers with an interest in innovative poetry – in New Zealand literature, Indigenous literature, Māori literature – this book is significant and needed".

Solly's work has been published in various literary magazines including Starling, Landfall, Sport and others, and anthologised in Best New Zealand Poems (2019), Aotearoa Poetry Yearbook 2021, Out Here: an anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa (Auckland University Press, 2021) and A Kind of Shelter (Massey University Press, 2023). In 2019 she was a runner-up for the Caselberg Trust International Poetry Prize.

Music and other work

As a taonga pūoro performer and cellist, Solly has performed with artists such as Yo-yo Ma, Whirimako Black and Trinity Roots, and with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Her debut album Pōneke was released in 2020. She has composed pieces for short films and for the Goethe Institute with Wellington Film Society.

Solly is a member of the Tararua musical quartet together with Ariana Tikao, Al Fraser and Phil Boniface. Their album Bird Like Men was released in 2021. Solly composed the work Te Karanga o ngā Whētu (the stories of the stars) for the group, which premiered at the Wellington Jazz Festival in 2021. She is also part of the Maianginui taonga pūoro ensemble of women, together with Tikao, Te Kahureremoa Taumata and Khali-Meari Materoa. Her composition Ātahu was performed by Maianginui and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at the 2023 Auckland Arts Festival.

Solly co-wrote the short film Super Special (2019) with Ashley Williams, which has aired on Whakaata Māori, at the Māoriland Film Festival in 2020 and at the Los Angeles Women in Film Festival.

References

1. "Tūī / by Ruby Solly". National Library of New Zealand. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
2. ^ "Solly, Ruby". Read NZ Te Pou Muramura. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
3. ^ Reid, Graham (17 August 2020). "The Famous Elsewhere Highly Personal Questionnaire: Ruby Solly". Elsewhere. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
4. ^ Kino, Shilo (20 May 2022). "'Our practice is connected to wellbeing': Creativity in Te Ao Māori". Ensemble Magazine. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
5. ^ Betts, Richard (2021). "Turangi girl grown up". Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
6. Solly, Ruby (5 August 2020). "The red fleck in her hair". Newsroom. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
7. Whiteside, Andrew. "Ruby Solly talks about her ancestry and her creativity". Soundcloud. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
8. Barnes, Emma; Tse, Chris, eds. (2021). Out Here: An Anthology of Takatapui and LGBTQIA+ Writers from Aotearoa. Auckland, New Zealand: Auckland University Press. ISBN 9781776710775.
9. ^ "The Mixtape: Ruby Solly". Radio New Zealand. 6 February 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
10. Solly, Ruby (1 March 2020). "Being Māori in classical music is exhausting". E-Tangata. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
11. Hayden, Leonie (8 June 2021). "Ruby Solly is making music to the sounds of the stars". The Spinoff. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
12. Solly, Ruby (2019). How can I as a Māori music therapy student develop the use of taonga puoro in my practice to support client recovery in an inpatient mental health setting? (PDF) (Master's thesis). Victoria University of Wellington. doi:10.26686/WGTN.17136668. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
13. Solly, Ruby (2 June 2021). "Ruby Solly: Community in the arts keeps us all safe". Stuff. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
14. Solly, Ruby (2021). Tōku Papa. Wellington, New Zealand: Te Herenga Waka University Press. ISBN 9781776564125.
15. "Poet Ruby Solly - inspired by ancestors". Radio New Zealand. 24 February 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
16. Neilson, Jessie (20 August 2021). "Tōku Pāpā". Takahē. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
17. Solly, Ruby (2023). The Artist. Wellington, New Zealand: Te Herenga Waka University Press. ISBN 9781776920709.
18. Sullivan, Robert (26 May 2023). "The Artist by Ruby Solly". Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
19. "Ruby Solly: Six feet for a single, eight feet for a double". Best New Zealand Poems. 2019. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
20. "Tararua - 'Bird Like Men'". Radio New Zealand. 6 February 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
21. "Meet Tararua - Art Music Quartet". SOUNZ. 20 July 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
22. Fox, Rebecca (14 April 2022). "Taonga puoro not typecast". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
23. "Wellington Jazz Festival 2021: Tararua and Friends, Te Karanga o ngā Whētu". Radio New Zealand. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
24. "Ātahu: 'Women are at the heart of what makes this story work'". Radio New. 23 February 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2023.

External links

• Profile on Read NZ Te Pou Muramura
• Contributor page at SOUNZ: Centre for New Zealand Music
• "Between 'Birdspeak' and 'The Artist': Arihia Latham and Ruby Solly in conversation", article on The Spinoff with poetry by Solly and Arihia Latham
• Pōneke, Solly's debut album on Bandcamp

• 1996 births
• Living people
• Ngāi Tahu people
• Kāti Māmoe people
• Waitaha (South Island iwi)
• Victoria University of Wellington alumni
• New Zealand musicians
• 21st-century New Zealand poets
• New Zealand LGBTQ poets
• New Zealand women poets
• 21st-century New Zealand women musicians
• New Zealand LGBTQ musicians
• New Zealand Māori musicians
• New Zealand cellists
• Women cellists