An ekphrastic whakapapa

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.

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