E Kō, Nō Hea Koe by Matariki Bennett and In The Cracks of Light by Apirana Taylor, two recently released poetry collections from Aotearoa, are works that will have a significant impact on their readers and the literary landscape for a long time to come. Despite differences in style and form, both bring a similar kaupapa to the tēpu. Tackling identity, Māoritanga, disconnection, and the mahi of reassembling oneself once again into connectedness, these pukapuka stand alone as pou, but together are an ahi kā at the forefront of Māori writing, lighting the way onward.

It’s impossible not to notice a distinct connection between them, a particular organic flavour that arises  when kaituhi Māori put pen to paper. While written poetry was brought to Aotearoa from wāhi kē, the innate desire and ability to storytell is a staple of indigenous life, harking back to a time before our pūrākau were even beginning to be told. In E Kō, Nō Hea Koe, Bennett retells the stories of her whānau and hāpori as a young wahine paving her way through today’s political landscape: ‘On the 50th anniversary of te wiki o te reo māori, the British monarchy dominates every. single. headline.’

In In The Cracks of Light, Taylor too uses the page as a vessel to share kōrero in a style that feels intuitive, ancient, and deeprooted in its flow. Both collections make sense of the world through words, using te reo Māori and language that mihis to te ao Māori, while also centering the experience of loss of language and alienation from culture throughout. As a pair, however, the books sing of reclamation. The spirit of reassembling oneself, one’s people, and one’s places, albeit in different ways, is the sweet aftertaste the reader is left with.’Beyond, boy, look beyond; that’s where the whakapapa is,’ says Apirana Taylor. ‘Where else could we go if not to our healers?’ asks Bennett, as if in response. ‘What else could we do if not to heal?’

These books provide a clear example of why the increased publication of work by Māori authors is so vital - to provide a real breadth of literature, and to never assume that there is one Māori ‘voice’ to represent us all. Pressure is often put upon kaituhi Māori to be representatives of te ao Māori as a whole, whereas in these collections, both Bennett and Taylor are showing up to their work as themselves, in their most authentic forms. They are Māori authors,but the ways they speak to this in poetry are  feats of authenticity, characterizing their own experiences and identities rather than something they’ve been pressured to portray. Taylor brings both historical and contemporary issues to the light - from the pūrākau of the maunga to the intricacies of war, from the poverty and addiction brought about by colonisation to the continuing assaults upon Papatūānuku, to sharing with us his experiences across the span of a lifetime, and the lifetimes of his tīpuna before him. 

‘the car park is my marae 
Mc’Donalds
Kentucky Fried 
liquor outlets 
are my paepae 
bills to pay
the pram is my waka.’

Bennett offers up the perspectives of a rangatahi Māori, similarly embedded in the cultural landscape, but existing within a largely urban landscape and environment. There’s a distinct difference between the often short and succinct words of Taylor, whittling down even the largest of concepts into bite-sized pieces; and Bennett’s flowing prose holding deep narratives, structures and dialogues. In The Cracks of Light is Taylor’s seventh published collection, but E Kō, Nō Hea Koe is Bennett’s debut. E Kō, Nō Hea Koe flows through seven sections, each titled for the kaupapa of the poems within, and marked in between with artworks by her sister, Māhina Bennet. These sections hold grief and mana motuhaketanga, city lights and cemeteries, uprisings and comedowns.

In this sense, it feels as though these books, together, symbolise the kind of tuakana-teina relationship so often held within te ao Māori; with both collections representing their own whakapapa, but more widely, the whakapapa of Māori writing as well. Across their similarities and differences, it is this that ultimately ties the two together, and makes both books all the more poignant, as they offer us two perspectives, styles and examples of the taonga that comes when we really let our stories be heard.

Reviewed by Isla Huia