K E R I H U L M E
Poet, short story writer, novelist and fisher,
Keri Hulme was born in Otautahi, New Zealand, in 1947. She has Scots, English
and Maori ancestry; her tribal affiliation is to Kāi
Tahu (Kāti Rakiamoa, Kāi Te Ruahikihiki). Writing fulltime since 1983, Hulme
gained international recognition with the novel the bone people (which won the
New Zealand Book Award for Fiction, the Mobil Pegasus prize for Maori writing,
both in 1984, and the Booker-McConnell award in 1985). Keri’s main interests are
her whanau, friends, reading, painting, food and fishing, especially
whitebaiting (the reason why she continues to live in an isolated area on the
west coast of the South Island, New Zealand).
Silence
. . . on another marae
E ngā iwi o ngāi tahu
(for Rowley Habib, who asked the question)
Where are your bones?
My bones lie in the sea
Where are your bones?
They lie in forgotten lands
stolen, ploughed, and sealed
Where are your bones?
On southern islands
sawed by discovering winds
Where are your bones?
Whisper:
Moeraki: Pūrakaunui: Arahura:
Okārito: Murihiku: Rakiura . . .
Where are your bones?
Lying heavy on my heart
Where are your bones?
Dancing as songs and old words
in my head
deep in the timelessness of mind
Where are your bones?
Here in my gut
strong in my legs walking
knotting my fists
but
Where are your bones?
Auē!
My bones are flour,
ground to make an alien bread . . .
Mihi. Greeting. Weeping hello.
And to me, standing out as though
I’m the cripple in a company of runners;
to me, pale and bluegrey-eyed,
skin like a ghost, eyes like stones;
to me, always the manuhiri when away from home –
the weeping rings louder than the greeting.
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