All our stories are yours to explore. The Going West Festival’s archives are now discoverable online through Auckland Libraries’ heritage collections database, Kura.
Hundreds of audio recordings. Thousands of photographs. Three decades of literary and cultural history made searchable for readers, researchers, former audiences and future generations.
The Within These Walls Series formed part of the Going West Festival’s 30th anniversary celebrations, and marks a moment of arrival for Shadbolt House as it comes into its own as a writers’ residency and literary hub.
Thank you to those who joined us in the glade at Piha for the poetry writing exploration and making your mark in The Listening Sand on Sunday 2 November 2025
Going West celebrates Robert Sullivan (Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu), our new New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2025-2028
In 2024, we completed approximately a third of the work required to restore the property’s structural integrity. We are now preparing to launch the next significant stage of work needed to establish the house as a full writers’ residency.
The Going West Trust and the Shadbolt family celebrate Shadbolt house receiving a Category 1 historic place listing.
Our dedicated archivist, with support from the Auckland Library Heritage Trust and Lotteries Heritage, has completed the marathon effort of archiving the Going West festival audio collection for 1996 – 2019.
The House Within, just premiered in Wellington, holds a delicate lens to the fascinating life and work of one of Aotearoa’s literary treasures, Dame Fiona Kidman.
NGĀKAU is a poetic film that dives deep into the wananga of the three chambers of the heart — whatumanawa, manawa and pumanawa.
Tracey Slaughter’s Self-portrait with chrysalis in a locked garage explores west Auckland as a place of in-between spaces, where the lives of the fortunate live just beyond the frame.
Filmed by Luke McPake, Anne Kennedy initially composed this piece for a large scale sand mural at Piha.
A kaleidoscopic Waitākere road trip, Whirlflow by poet Amber Esau and filmmaker Kathleen Mantel blazes a surrealistic arc over west Auckland.
In poet Nathan Joe’s magnetic three poem meditation on home and homecoming, he explores the feelings of being caught between Christchurch and Auckland, between queerness and being Chinese-Kiwi.
Proudly low-brow poet Freya Daly Sadgrove combines poetry with glam and punky theatrics, but faces harsh criticism in her attempt to make poetry accessible. Directed by Kathleen Winter.
Directed and illustrated Luke McPake, Hera Lindsay Bird performs her poem Do Not Go Gentle.
Going West brings you the best NZ writers through the generosity of:
