Anahera Gildea
An ekphrastic whakapapa
Not I, some child, born in a marvellous year,
will learn the trick of standing upright here.
Allen Curnow 1943
The trick of standing upright here
is the trick of using both feet.
Glen Colquhoun 1999
Nā Allen Curnow te mea tuatahi
Nā Glen Colquhoun te mea tuarua
Nā Anahera Gildea ngā mea e whai ake nei
the trick of standing upright here
What is the trick you speak of?
Is it the clever mangle of words
into knots that cannot be undone
that had your ure standing upright
in our water
laying with claim after claim
– a first right of purchase
to this naked whenua?
What is the trick you disclose?
Is it hard work and ingenuity,
boots and straps, standard rigging
that system of ropes we know so well
held firm with a tension of stays
the list of ships so long
their anchors are the named
hooks in a flotilla of streets?
What is this trick you mention?
Is it the sleight of hand, the ink still wet
on your tongue at the pā
red on the skyline
of the women and children at church
the fruit bowl filled
statues standing upright
in designated Grey areas?
What is this trick, this method?
It is the linguistic fuckery
that suggests we are all in this together
our legs a binary
whose upright stance
must straddle this doorway
counting moa.
Kia tū tōtika ai tātou i konei
Ko te whānautanga mai, ko te karapipiti o te whakapapa.
Koia te tāngaengae ki te whenua.
Ko te reo te tino kai i tua atu i ngā kokonga.
Koia te kakara i waiho e ngā tūpuna hei ārahi i a mātou.
Ko te whero te toto o te haeata.
Koia te tohu, te whakapuaki o ngā hōia whai muri i te pakanga.
Ko te reo te hā o te Māoritanga.
Kia huitahi ai tātou, kia kaua e kihi, kia hongi kē.
Ko te pango te korowai o Ranginui.
Koia te Rangiroa, te Rangiātea, te Rangipāmaomao.
Ko te mā te kara o te tāmitanga.
Koia te pūrangiaho.
Ko te hākari te kōrero paki.
Koia te karakia whakanoa.
Ko te kaimoana e whakahaumarutia ana e te Tiriti.
Koia te takutai moana.
Ko ngā kōrero tuku iho e kawea ai e ngā manu.
Koia ngā waiata i waenga i ngā rākau.
Ko te katakata te whakamaroke i ngā rihi.
Kei puehu te marae.
Kaua e moe, e hoa mā.
I raro i ngā purapura whetū o ngā kōwhaiwhai,
Koia nei tō tātou pou herenga.
Mā ngā mātāwaka ngā pūrākau e pupuri.
Koia nei te reo wainene o te motu.
Tū ai te tangata i te mea e rua ōna waewae?
E kāo.
Ki te pērā, ka pau te kaha.
Me piri tata ki te reo Māori kē,
kia tū tōtika ai tātou
i konei tonu
nā te mea
koia te tūrangawaewae.
Kia kaha ki te kōrero i te reo Māori – kei mate ā-moa.