Powerful collection of poetry in te reo Māori and English The 20 best poetry books of 2018 The Spinoff Review of Books A highly charged current of feminine strength underlies the poems in this collection....I applaud the translators on a marvellous job, and the editors for their foresight in having this work provided in both languages. Landfall Review Online |
Tātai Whetū means constellation of stars. It also means tongue twister. In Tātai Whetū: Seven Māori Women Poets in Translation there are seven wāhine poets just as there are seven sisters of Matariki. In Tātai Whetū, Matariki’s seven sisters respond to mana wāhine, to voice and tongues. Their poems are unapologetic and powerful, are not middle-brow or white-washed or necessarily easy. Tātai Whetu is also a bilingual intersection. It joins the kōrero about bilingualism and te reo Māori, and racism in Aotearoa. It joins Hēmi Kelly when he says “I immediately notice the macron is missing over the ‘a’ in Māori”, (in his review of Paul Moon’s Killing Te Reo Maori), and Anika Moa when she challenges the bully boys, “Moko are a direct link to my whakapapa…would you like me to be another skin colour and a male too?” It joins Taika Waititi in his calling out of profiling and language laziness (read: refusal). |