Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū hosted the prolific Gavin Bishop, award winning illustrator and author, for a chat with Morrin Rout. A household name across generations, Gavin Bishop has published over seventy books, which encompass original stories, retellings of Māori legends, European fairy tales and more.
Growing up in Kingston, on the southern tip of Lake Wakatipu, Gavin’s exposure to art was somewhat serendipitous. Whilst he was always better at drawing than arithmetic, many in Kingston told him to forget those subjects and become a police officer instead - because in their eyes ‘being tall’ was the only necessary qualification. However, a signwriter visited Kingston to paint a mural for the local pub, altering the course of Gavin’s career. The signwriter let Gavin stand in the doorway and watch him work, and he even painted a Mickey Mouse on Gavin’s gumboots and his bike helmet with flames. This set in motion Gavin’s decision to take art all through high school in Invercargill as well as being set on leaving school early to be a signwriter. However, Trevor Moffatt, who happened to be his art teacher, encouraged him to attend art school in Ōtautahi.
The move from Invercargill to Ōtautahi to study art was “amazing”, Gavin couldn’t believe how many likeminded art enthusiasts he was surrounded by. He was fortunate to have a generous and influential group of artists working in Ōtautahi at the time, who were extremely generous in their mentorship, such as Bill Sutton. As Gavin grew his artistic profile, he landed a role as the art advisor for the Ministry of Education. He would travel from Kaikoura to Bluff visiting schools, and one day a Dunedin art teacher suggested he publish picture books. Her son worked for Oxford University Press, and he had spoken of the demand for children’s books set in Aotearoa. That was all the convincing Gavin needed. That said, Gavin ‘had no idea what I was doing’, a feeling confirmed by his typist randomly editing his overwriting. After posting his draft to publishers in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara, he received a positive reply overall, though he was told to halve every page. Bishop stressed the importance of developing by being prepared to listen and re-do things. It is very rarely perfect the first time.
Years later, upon the passing of his father, Gavin began his journey to discover his whakapapa. His grandfather said “I’ve given you all the names’. All Gavin and his brother knew was that his grandfather came from Waikato, and their mother’s middle names of Irihāpeti and Hinepau - so they followed that trail up north. They were eventually led to Poroporo, a Ngāti Pūkeko marae near Whakatāne. Some familiar looking women asked, ‘What do you boys want?’ They had thought their granddad hadn’t had any kids - turns out these women were his second cousins. This led Gavin to discover further connections, including to that of King Tāwhiao, the second Māori king. Whilst Bishop had always been interested in Māori history, this was a pivotal point for his illustration of many books on Māori myths and legends, as well as a three-year children’s book project on the New Zealand Land Wars.
Unsurprisingly, Gavin has worked with many treasured New Zealand authors throughout his career, particularly Joy Cowley. This was partly due to her attitude of handing over her story and ‘that’s it’, which suits Gavin just fine. As someone who doesn’t want to be told what the characters look like, Gavin highly valued Joy’s view that ‘illustrators bring another dimension’. Gavin also worked with Margaret Mahy - the last book of hers he illustrated was Mister Whistler. She “wasn’t well” at that point, so whilst Gavin was able to show her the pictures, she never got to see the actual book. Rout asks if Mahy influenced his writing. Gavin's answer was immediate: “No, she was a genius.”
More recently, Gavin has published a board book Titiro, which he found surprisingly difficult because there was “nowhere to hide”. Evidently, he rose to the challenge as the book won the Bookhub Picture Book Award at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. This came much to Gavin’s surprise - he and his publicist had agreed “thank God we’re not gonna win anything this year”. So instead of sticking to the plan of relaxing and enjoying the wine during the award ceremony, Gavin had to give an unprepared speech instead! Gavin’s latest release is titled Taniwha, taking the reader on a journey across the motu to meet the array of taniwha who live here.
It is a broad collection - some are kindly, such as Hine-kōrako, who protected the people of her human husband. Others are terrible, such as the taniwha near Kaikoura who sprays toxic saliva on their victims. Like all of Bishop’s books, it sounds captivating and well worth a read - whether you’re seven or seventy!
Catherine
He Hononga | Connection, Ground floor, Tūranga
More Gavin Bishop
- Find books written and / or illustrated by Gavin Bishop
- Titiro / Look — An interview with Gavin Bishop 2024
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