Patricia Grace
Patricia Frances Grace DCNZM QSO (née Gunson; born 17 August 1937) is
a New Zealand writer of novels, short stories, and children’s books. She
began writing as a young adult, while working as a teacher. Her early
short stories were published in magazines, leading to her becoming the
first female Māori writer to publish a collection of short stories, Waiariki, in
1975. Her first novel, Mutuwhenua: The Moon Sleeps, followed in 1978.
Since becoming a full-time writer in the 1980s, Grace has written seven
novels, seven short-story collections, a non-fiction biography and an
autobiography. Her works explore Māori life and culture, including the
impact of Pākehā (New Zealand European) and other cultures on Māori,
with use of the Māori language throughout. Her most well-known novel,
Potiki (1986) features a Māori community opposing the private
development of their ancestral land. She has also written a number of
children’s books, seeking to write books in which Māori children can see
their own lives.
Potiki
The novel is set in a coastal community resembling Hongoeka, Grace’s
hometown, which is north of Wellington, New Zealand.[6][4] Although the
characters in the novel are fictional, Grace was influenced by the real-life
attempts of private developers to acquire land at Hongoeka since the
1950s.
The book is narrated by different voices, including most notably Toko, his
aunt Roimata and his uncle Hemi,[8] and has a non-linear spiral-like
structure.[9] Grace intentionally set the novel out as though it was a
whaikōrero (formal speech), following the standard format in Māori
oratory: beginning with a chant, then greetings, then telling the story, and
at the end finishing with “Ka huri” (sometimes translated as “spread the
word” or “over to you”, signalling that it is now the turn of the next
speaker to tell their story).
Potiki is the story of a family and the encroachment on their lives of the
now dominant culture that is trying to usurp their way of life, a land
developer wants to turn their coastal ancestral land into a holiday park,
and will use whatever tactics necessary to do it.
In some ways the new culture has already succeeded in subverting their
own, colonial style education conditions young minds, severing them from
their language and traditions, causing divisions within the community as
some are enticed by the individualism and material benefits of a capitalist
mentality.Told in three parts, the story is narrated by Hemi, his wife
Roimata and the son they bring into their family Toko, raising him with
their three children.
The story of Toko reflects that of Māui, the hero of Māori mythology,
through factors like his relationship with the sea, his unusual birth and
other symbols.[10][9] He is also sometimes described as a Jesus Christ-
like figure;[9] as academic [[Roger Robinson (academic) |Roger
Robinson]] notes, Toko’s birth parents are called Mary and possibly
Joseph,[2] and his sacrifice leads to renewal for the community.
Potiki, a novel by Patricia Grace originally published in 1986, tells the
story of a Maori community in New Zealand and their struggle for survival
against the attempts of land developers to buy, bully and coerce them off
their land. What the developers fail to understand about this community,
however, is that no amount of money can entice these people away from
their sacred land and buildings, and that there is ultimately more strength
in the collective efforts of a community working together to fight injustice
than there is in corruption and unbridled power. The story is narrated at
times by Roimata, at times by Toko, and the rest of the time by an
unspecified third voice. These fragmented recounts take the form of the
characters' memories of events or flashbacks and are located at different
points in the past. Often, two chapters may narrate the same event but
from the viewpoints of two different characters. The result is a patchwork
of events from different points in time and different perspectives that
collectively tell a rich and powerful story.
The novel’s Prologue tells the story of the carver who made the wharenui
(Maori meeting house) for the community who form the subject of the
novel. Breaking one of the principle rules of his trade, which dictates that
the poupou (carved wooden figures) that adorn the meeting house may
not depict an ancestor from living memory, he carves a representation of
himself. However, because he has no children, he is unable to complete
the carving and tells his people that the space under his feet must be left
empty until a future time.
Roimata begins Part 1 by introducing the reader to her family: her
husband, Hemi, and their four children, James, Tangi, Manu, and Toko.
They live with Hemi's sister, Mary, who dusts and polishes the meeting
house on a daily basis and has a special affection for the last poupou
made by the carver from the Prologue. Roimata has known and loved both
Hemi and Mary since she was 5 years old.
She relates the story of her return home after twelve years spent away at
the wishes of her dead father, upon which she finds Hemi, his family, and
the wider Maori community mourning the loss of Hemi’s mother. He
believes her return was somehow predestined and is happy to see her.
Roimata then tells the story of the day Mary gives birth to Toko in the sea,
which comes as a surprise to the whole family, who did not even suspect
Mary of being pregnant. The baby is shockingly deformed; however, as he
grows older, it becomes apparent that he has a special knowledge and the
gift of foresight. Toko foresees that there is some sort of conflict in store
for their community and warns Roimata about it. Meanwhile, Hemi loses
his job and seizes this opportunity to resume his dream of working on the
land as a means of providing a livelihood for his family and community,
which is an occupation he had been forced to give up years earlier. Part 1
ends with Toko's narration of the neighboring Te Ope tribe, who were
victims of the postcolonial government's project to claim land that
rightfully belonged to the Maori community and develop it into so-called
amenities. This story foreshadows the events narrated in Part 2.
Part 2 opens with a detailed account of one of the many meetings that
take place between the Maori people and the property developer, Mr.
Dolman, whom the people have nicknamed the Dollarman, reflecting the
mercenary motivations behind all arguments he uses to try to persuade
the Maori people to give up their land and allow their meeting house and
burial ground to be moved. Although the Maori people's refusal to grant
the developers permission to build roads at the front of their houses is for
the time being respected, work eventually begins on the demolishing the
hills behind their land to make new access roads to the future resort.
Meanwhile, Hemi's plans to develop the gardens and market some of the
produce come to fruition, and the community takes pleasure in reviving its
somewhat lost traditions. There is a week of protests, in which people
from the local community as well as some of the younger Maoris block the
roads holding placards and signs; however, this does not halt the
construction work for long.
As usual, the summer brings heavy rain and the people awake one
morning to find that their burial ground has been flooded, causing one
side of it to wash away. They are informed by Matiu and Timoti, who
belong to a different tribe and work for the construction company
contracted to carry out the work, that the flooding was deliberately
caused by the construction of a dam built to channel water towards the
Maori land. An official inquiry is launched into the incident but its results
are inconclusive and the Maori people are found to be at fault for
tampering with the evidence.
The next strategy of the developers to remove the Maori from their land is
to target their meeting house by setting fire to it. Although the
community is initially distraught by the loss of their sacred building, Mary
manages to salvage the remains of her beloved poupou from the debris
and, with the support of Te Ope people, the people build a new meeting
house. A special door is carved for Toko and his wheelchair in the new
meeting house and he is given a special place to sit: under Mary's poupou.
At the beginning of Part 3, we learn that Toko has died. The chapters that
follow recount how this tragedy occurred: one night he goes searching
for his brother, Manu, who has wandered to the meeting house in his
sleep. Upon entering the building through his special door, he is killed.
Soon after his death, James, who has learned the skill of carving, realizes
that Toko is the person destined to fill the space that the childless master
carver had left under his poupou. He therefore carves out a poupou
representing Toko, giving his dead brother a new home inside the meeting
house.
Through the stories that the members of the Maori community share with
one another one evening in the meeting house, we learn that Tangi has
achieved her goal of seeking justice for her brother's murder, as well as
for the other crimes against her people, and that the following day the
family will accompany her and James to court.
