John Puhiatau Pule (born 1962 in Liku, Niue) is a Niuean artist, novelist and poet whose work deals with Niuean cosmology, Christianity, migration and colonialism. The Queensland Art Gallery describes him as one of the most significant artists of the Pacific.
Pule was born in Liku and moved to New Zealand in 1964, where he was schooled in Auckland. After leaving school he worked on a dairy farm, in factories and in labouring jobs. He has said that writing was a way of decolonizing his mind, and his work draws on the experience of being Niuean in New Zealand. His poetry includes Sonnets to Van Gogh and Providence (1982) and The Bond of Time (1985). His novels include The Shark that Ate the Sun (1992), Burn My Head in Heaven (2000) and Restless People (2004).
As a painter he works on canvas and on bark cloth, a traditional Polynesian art form, and he also makes drawings, prints, films and performances. Burn My Head in Heaven is a set of ten drawings that combine poetry and imagery, while the Pulenoa Triptych addresses colonisation and cultural identity. He has exhibited across New Zealand, Australia, Europe, the United States, the Pacific and Asia, and his work is held by collections including the Queensland Art Gallery and Te Papa Tongarewa.