to row in unison

lift and dip exactly

hear the sound

of the chant

hoea hoea ra

pray for the crew

to know where to go

for their priests clear heads

sense to ration food

fill gourds

hoea hoea ra

pray for the lashings

and bailers and anchors

for the fish catch and big catch

to climb onto land

pray for remembering ritual

hoea hoea ra

bless this crew and their waka knowledge

bless this ship and its journeying

bless families about to part

bless the new land

bless the deities we bring

hoea hoea ra

Waka 98

waka images cut in and out

collages on the eyes

below the eyebrows

popping up in legends

coming out in urban myth

waka wallpaper

waka duvet covers

what dread hand shaped your fearful symmetry?

tiger of the sea carrying deities

to an empty land filled with fur seals

fat birds tall birds and mice

when will you stop tasting the wind?

when the wind relinquishes its salt taste

then like my ancient cousins I will turn to stone

and stay here forever

Waka 99

If waka could be resurrected

they wouldn’t just come out

from museum doors smashing

glass cases revolving and sliding

doors on their exit

they wouldn’t just come out

of mountains as if liquidified

from a frozen state

the resurrection wouldn’t just

come about this way

the South Island turned to wood

waiting for the giant crew

of Maui and his brothers

bailers and anchors turned back

to what they were when they were strewn

about the country by Kupe

and his relations

the resurrection would happen

in the blood of the men and women

the boys and girls

who are blood relations

of the crews whose veins

touch the veins who touched the veins

of those who touched the veins

who touched the veins

who touched the veins

of the men and women from the time

of Kupe and before.

The resurrection will come

out of their blood.

Waka 100

Stroke past line 1642

into European time.

Stroke past 1769

and the introduction of the West

Stroke on the approach to 1835

and formal Northern Maori sovereignty.

Stroke into the New World and stop.

Crews alight, consign waka

to memory, family trees, remove

the prowed tauihu, drape

the feathered mana

around the whare-womb

of the next crew

who are to remember waka

into the beginning

of centuries years minutes hours seconds

long and short hands centred

on Greenwich

each person

of waka memory

to hold their thoughts,

each person of seagoing

and waterborn descent

whose hard waka

are taken away.

And years later,

we ask our ancestors to wake,

whose mokopuna are carving in eyes,

restoring chiselled features, mouths

coming out of wood, genitals,

feet planted

on shoulders winding into stars

on ceilings, our ancestors of a culture

that has held its breath

through the age of Dominion.

We’ve adzed waka out for them –

the memories, intricate knowledge,

fleet leaders, our reasons for being –

shoulders that carried so many waka –