Last month I was invited to attend a workshop and respond to the Paemanu: Tauraka Toi – A Landing Place, exhibition at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
Visiting art galleries a fantastic way to gain inspiration, through looking at artworks I’ve not seen before, and because, more often than not, new words will usually come. It’s also great thing to do when I’ve been in a dry phase – something I must remember.
Here’s one of the toikupu (poems) Hoe (paddle) that I wrote in response to the exhibition, which was a gathering of artists Indigenous to the south, who explored relationships with Tohorā (southern right whale), ancestral connections, waterways and land.
Hoe
I watch as your hoe twists
like the spine of an ancient tuna, its whetū eyes alit
you now know more than I
were I to drag my coracle across your ribcage
I imagine respite might be found, in the hollow at the base of your throat
but the umbilical taoka taut and rippled tethers us
indivisible, despite our abstracted waka
I watch as your hoe twists
like the spine of an ancient tuna, its whetū eyes alit
you now know more than I
Photo credit: Justin Spiers
Iona Winter 
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