Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock

Detritus are the pieces that are left when something or someone breaks, falls apart or is destroyed: gravel from rocks, the organic matter from plants. At the edge of an endangered wetland in Te Ika-a-Māui, Robin Peace writes of what is left of a country colonised not just by people but by the plants and creatures they brought with them, especially the most ignored invader: the grass that replaced Aotearoa’s forests and lowlands with lawns and farms. Robin’s observations of the natural world are meticulous and often surprising, fertilised with the wonder and rage she feels at what’s in front of her and supported by her own stories of settlement and displacement.