Time in the Pacific Islands: 1965–1987 In 1965 Wendt returned to Samoa and became the headmaster of
Samoa College. and in 1979 was adapted into a feature film directed by
Paul Maunder, which was the first film focusing on the experiences of Pacific people in New Zealand. In 1974 Wendt was appointed a senior lecturer at the
University of the South Pacific, and worked both in
Suva and at its Samoan centre. In 1974 he published a collection of short stories, in the style of modern-day
fables, titled
Flying Fox in a Freedom Tree. Two stories from the collection were adapted into a feature film of the same name directed by
Martyn Sanderson in 1989. His first poetry collection,
Inside Us the Dead: Poems 1961 to 1974, was published in 1976, and a novella,
Pouliuli (translated as "darkness"), was published in 1977. In 1980 he was the editor of
Lali, an anthology of Pacific writing. From 1982 to 1987 he was the professor of Pacific literature at the University of the South Pacific, In his later career he edited important anthologies of Pacific writing including
Nuanua (1995),
Black Rainbow (1992) is described by Wendt as an "allegorical thriller", and featured a dystopian future New Zealand. In 2000 he delivered the New Zealand Book Council lecture, titled
Le Vaipe: the Dead Water. He received the Senior Pacific Islands Artist's Award at the 2003
Arts Pasifika Awards, and his first play ''The Songmaker's Chair'' premiered that year. In 2004 he was awarded the
Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture. In the
2013 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a member of the
Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civilian honour. He became a patron of the
New Zealand Book Council in 2015. Poetry by Wendt 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. ==Legacy and influence==