People like us get from Hawaiki to Taranaki via a whirlpool and need somewhere to get things straightened out again. When you first arrive you’re obsessed with wind, water, the feeling of being out of control After some time you focus on what needs to be repaired, what can be reused, what’s too damaged to keep One day you wake up and realise that you can’t remember which scrape produced which scar But also that it doesn’t matter anymore.
Alice Te Punga Somerville, Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised - Te Kawa a Māui farewell - 2. Okioki













