Tangihanga

at the pā
nō rātou te mana
nō ngā wāhine
e mau panekoti ana

my father
stands to speak

I am a needle of bone
on my aunty’s knee
I have cut my hair

handled gently
I am a thatched weapon
a flake of obsidian

something skirting
the boards of the house
as if it were property

what he says is like
bread or a bruise

there is a rushing to the edges
the scent of kawakawa releases
into the dark-fleshed home

Hinemoana Baker
from mātuhi | needle, Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2004

Over the coming months, the Monday Poem spot will include poetry that has stuck to me over time, poems that I’ve loved for all kinds of reasons. Poems that comfort or delight or challenge. Poems that strike the eye, ear, mind or heart.

I have loved this poem for twenty years, the first poem in Hinemoana’s debut collection, mātuhi | needle, a book that sings and weaves with aroha, agility and self navigation. I think of this poem welcoming us to the poetry that follows, and indeed, to the sublime collections that follow. Here, on the first page, whanua. Here in the first lines, wahine. Te reo Māori, the first breath. The healing balm of kawakawa, a wafting scent for speaker and reader. This layered poem is heart, the kind of vital heart that travels with you, as bridge, as anchor, lifeblood. Here the notes of an agile musician poet draw us into the chorded melodies to come, aural economy and aural richness, the sweet and sour intricacies of the world, the magnetic pull of story, memory, ancestors, home. Ah, such joy, returning to this poem and this collection, this poet.

Poet and performer Hinemoana Baker traces her ancestry from Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Te Āti Awa and Ngāi Tahu, as well as from England and Germany. Her four poetry collections, several original music albums and other sonic and written work have seen her on stages and pages in many countries around world for the last 25 years. With Maria McMillan, she co-edited Kaupapa: New Zealand Poets World Issues (2007). Her most recent poetry collection, Funkhaus (THWUP 2021) was shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. It was published in German translation (AZUR Voland & Quist) in 2023 and in Polish (Wydawnictwo Ha!art) in July 2024.

Hinemoana was the Arts Queensland Poet in Residence (2009); one of thirty-eight writers in residence at the University of Iowa International Writing Programme (2010); the writer in residence at Victoria University in Wellington (2014); the Creative New Zealand Berlin Writer in Residence (2016). She is currently Randell Cottage Trust’s writer in residence at the historic homestead at the base of Ahumairangi in Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara.

Hinemoana Baker’s website

Poetry Shelf conversation with Hinemoana

Te Herenega Waka University page