Iona Winter

Category: Aotearoa

  • Ode to You

    I remember you, when you were young. Your rounded face was full of tenderness and wonder. I can still hear your laughter, a deep chuckle far beyond your years. You knew things we didn’t.   But now, an enraged beast resides, hacking away, just beneath the surface, of your beautiful…

  • Responsibility and Absence

    I’ve been absent for a while. I apologise for the lack of communication from my end. Although I’ve not heard any complaints (because this blogging business is often a one way street), I do feel some responsibility, to post things for you to read. Responsibility, now there’s a BIG word. I’ve noticed,…

  • Privilege

    It’s been an extraordinary week. I could break that down into an extra, ordinary week, but I won’t. I’ll go with the former. It fits better. Soon, very soon, I’ll have an exciting announcement—but for now, the theme of privilege is what’s foremost in my mind. A priority this month was to…

  • And remember to breathe…

    Yes…well…I signed off social media in order to begin my re-write of ‘The Novel’. And I did do a major chunk. Truly, I did. And then I stopped. Why? Because the intensity of such a close relationship called for some time out. Then, I got creative in other ways. Being a bit of an…

  • Return to my Queen

    I have returned to my Queen (aka) ‘The Novel’. She, who I gently placed aside last year, upon submission for examination. There are quite a lot of metaphors I could take from this sentence. Cultural-social-political metaphors. But let’s not go there today. I’ll endeavour to keep things light, in this world which…

  • Change. Is it as good as a holiday?

    On a trip to The Big Smoke last week, I noticed how sped up and disconnected it all seemed. My response was one of sadness. At times, I had to ask people to slow down as they spoke to me. Yes okay, a contributing factor might be my declining hearing. However, what I noticed (most glaringly)…

  • Sound and Motion

    Today I was reminded of sounds. LOUD sounds and cringe-worthy musical taste. Sound travels here. There’s been a workman next door lately. I’ve been polite and said hello, but I don’t like the music he plays. It reminds me of the PAST, and not in a good way. Today it was VERY loud AND he…

  • Waitangi Day

    It’s Waitangi Day today and I am reminded of duality in me, in the melding of my two streams of whakapapa – Celtic and Māori. Both have come together in me. But there has often been conflict, miscommunication and a pull between the two – where do I belong? Today I am reminded, that what was agreed…

  • Plum-diddly-um

    I came back from the Big Smoke to thunder and lightning—all very exciting. I could almost hear the plants (and the chooks) sighs of relief at the accompanying rain. The plum trees are laden with fruit (as are the pear and apple trees) BUT all the fruit is minuscule—a result of the drought I…