Satyadevi Verne Barrett

Te Ao Hurihuri Satyadevi Verne Barrett

"Te Ao Hurihuri. Te Ao Hurihuri, I hear my kuia in my heart, even now. 'Our end is our beginning' - I hear it like a chant, or redemptive prayer, feel it shine like a magical wish-fulfilling gem." Many years before Stella chants these words, a child lies bedridden in hospital. She can see but not touch or speak with her beloved kuia, her dying grandmother. Ever inventive, she leaves her body attempting to follow Maraea to the mythic realm. Looking back after many years, Stella, distracted while trying to write a novel, stares appalled at a 1967 photograph. New Zealand forces has just joined the fray in Vietnam. The My Lai massacre has shocked the world. Stella meets her nemesis and never finishes her anti-war novel. But in time, other tales emerge from the mists of racial memory: this is Te Ao Hurihuri. Here three whanau members, over three generations, are each haunted by an older image, a mysterious painting of a Boer War soldier, bayonet drawn, staring out defiantly, his jubilant right foot resting on the crumpled body of a black tribesman. Each observer - a child, a mother and a grandfather - are bonded by a silent enigma... one that shrouds the suffering indigenous people survive against cruel odds, not of their own making. One of them writes Stella's story. This imaginative cultural memoir, uses simple tales, scattered time frames and voice changes, to evoke war torn themes: love, loss, redemption, forgiveness and above all, the courage vital to survive our own human error. "These are heartfelt stories glowing with the writer's inner voice." Dame Fiona Kidman.