Observations from the whare
A new, local anthology of writing and art has the idea of shelter at its core. We hear from the book’s editors Witi Ihimaera and Michelle Elvy about how havens and architecture informed their project.
This new and promising anthology by local and international thinkers has the notion of shelter — and observing the world from within the confines of a haven — at its core. According to the introduction: “76 creative thinkers — poets and fiction writers, anthropologists and biologists, musicians and visual artists, and more — gather at a hui in the shelter, which you might visualise as a magnificent cave-like dwelling or meeting house.” From there, writers from afar as Hawai’i, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, Italy, Rwanda, Spain and Sri Lanka collaborate with an impressive list of locals to create a conversation about the world we inhabit.
Witi Ihimaera: I was interested to read journalist Rebecca Macfie’s comment that “Amid the destruction wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle, marae stand as places of refuge, support and aroha”. From the very beginning, we thought of the marae as our ‘kind of shelter’ within which to ponder the world approaching so swiftly in front of us. [This book’s co-editor] Michelle Elvy came up with the idea of the shelter. I added to the idea by reimagining it as the haven in the curve of Papatūānuku’s body where her children took sanctuary, during the separation when Ranginui was thrust into the sky, and they were vulnerable to the cyclonic tumult. When designing the shelter or meeting house itself, we followed through with tikanga pertaining to Māori architecture. There’s a koruru, a figurehead or figureheads in our case; a tahuhu, to keep up the roof; heke, or ribs to provide the spatial interior; and, along the walls, carvings and thatched panels representing the historical past and present. In many ways, the shelter represents the taonga that we have all inherited. The contributors might be said to be the keepers or kaitiaki of the taonga. And when the contributors look out at the swirling world before them, they are doing so in full knowledge of the gifts of the shelter or whare.
It’s a great mix of established writers and new talent. What does that mix bring to the collection?
Michelle Elvy: A central purpose of such a collection is to nurture a mingling of voices. At the heart of the project is something quite simple: It’s essential that we listen — to each other, to the natural world, to the abstract forces and energies that inform our everyday lives. Structurally, we saw this as an opportunity to bring together many diverse writers and artists, from some of our most revered, such as Anne Salmond, David Eggleton and Yuki Kihara, to newer awardwinning writers and also — equally notable — emerging voices. And what unexpected encounters between Brannavan Gnanalingam and Japanese-french pianist Ami Rogé, between Ghazaleh Golbakhsh and Australianitalian Catherine Mcnamara, between Apirana Taylor and Rwandan Louise Umutoni-bower, for example. Ultimately, we hope this book creates a space for people and ideas to sit alongside each other, eschewing hierarchies for creative flow, inviting reverberations across distance and time. (Interview: Massey University Press)