Whaea Blue

Description

Polly and Wiki and all the other kuia ride on the roof of Kerrys Toyota Corona with its navy blistered bonnet .. .They do this for all the moko; they are everywhere and roam inside us as they keep weaving the net and its no small thing that only a few slip through.
Time and whakapapa slowly unravel as Talia Marshall weaves her way across Aotearoa in a roster of decaying European cars. Along the way she will meet her father, pick up a ghost, transform into a wharenui, and make cocktail hour with Ans Westra.
Men will come Roman, Ben, Isaac and some go. Others linger. And it is these men her father, Paul, and grandfathers Mugwi Macdonald and Jim; her tpuna Nicola Sciascia, tohunga Kipa Hemi Whiro, Kupe himself who she observes as she moves backwards into the future. With her ancestor Ttepourangi she relives Te Rauparahas bloody legacy, and attempts and fails to write her great historical novel.
But it is her whine, past and present, who carry her, even as the ground behind her smoulders.
Tempestuous and haunting,Whaea Blueis a tribute to collective memory, the elasticity of self, and the women we travel through. It is a karanga to and from the abyss. It is a journey to peace.