Potiki

In this chapter, Roimata recounts the role of the construction workers in Toko’s funeral in more detail. The men, many of whom are of Maori descent, help out by collecting wood for the fires, cooking, making tables, and building extra washrooms for the unprecedented number of guests who attend the funeral. They remain until the last night of the funeral, “laughing, talking, singing”, but as Roimata notes, “they did not drink, or drank little, only pretending to drink” (165). Although Roimata is aware that there is “something happening” (165), she decides not to worry about it. 

At dawn, the following morning, Roimata, Hemi and other members of the community are awoken by explosions and detect through the dim light that the new road has been “blasted” and that the machines are pushing asphalt and rock down the hillside and onto the “scaffolding and foundations of new buildings” (166). Unable to make out who is controlling the machines, they return to bed until the noise has stopped. When they get up again, they see that the road has been destroyed, the new buildings flattened, and that the machines are “submerged in the sea” (166).

When they arrive at the meeting house later on, they find the workers and the younger members of the community asleep inside. They collect their clothes, wash them and cook breakfast, before waking the men. The Maori joyfully sing songs and play pranks on the men as they wake up and shower. As they are sitting down to eat, two police officers arrive, along with photographers, journalists and other officials. Once the breakfast things have been cleared away and the cleaning from the funeral has been done, the police question Stan about the damage to the development and the machines and whether he had been able to identify those responsible. Stan reminds the officers that the evidence they had given in the previous inquiries had been rejected and turned against them, and tries to tell them that someone with links to the development company was responsible for Toko’s death. However, the officers cut him off and leave soon after. Roimata points out that “the hills have been quiet since” (169), and she looks forward to being able to go out fishing again, once the land and sea have healed.

Referring to the story of the childless carver who had made the people’s first meeting house and left a space below the last poupou for the rest of the carving to be completed in the future, James tells his people that he now knows “who the lower figure should be” (170) and asks for their permission to add it. The people tell him that he does not need their permission, since in the story it is said that someone would know who the figure’s tamaiti (child) is, and that James must be this person. The people recite blessings and leave James to begin his work. With Manu and Mary at his side, he fashions a representation of Toko. When Manu cries and asks if the figure is real, James tells him that, although the figure is real, “nothing can be like it was before” (171), and that once the work is finished, he will no longer cry. Once the work is complete, the community and other visitors assemble “in large numbers” (171) to view the work and give it their blessing. They see that the carving reflects all the aspects of Toko’s life, including his physical deformities, as well as his wisdom, storytelling, his close relationship with Manu, the big fish he caught, and the woven basket and pendant that Granny Tamihana gave to him. Once the visitors have left, the community sit on the mattresses in the meeting house to “tell, retell, [and] listen to the stories” (172).

Chapter 28 consists of the stories that the Maori people take turns telling each other while seated in their meeting house. Each of the main characters tells his or her own story.

Roimata begins hers with the gulls that brought her back home after the twelve years she spent away. Whereas her husband is “rooted to the land” (175), like Rangi, the mythological primordial father, she describes herself as an “ever-watcher of the sky” (174), like Papa, Rangi’s female partner. As part of her story, Roimata will “proudly and gladly” (175) accompany her two children the following day when they go to court to pursue legal action against the land developers for their crimes against the Maori community, including Toko’s murder.

Hemi’s story is about a man whose old life ended, leading him to begin a new life rooted in caring for the earth and for people. He is content that “the hills are quiet now” (176) and that peace and safety has been restored to the whanau. Instead of opting to simply bury his pain and anger, he is now in favor of taking action against those who have harmed his community and will therefore also support his children in court the following day.

James’s story begins with the darkness that existed “before the time of remembering” (177) and later became a story of people. Instead of telling his story in words, James has carved it out of wood and given it to the whanau.

Tangi’s story is told in the form of a song about the color red and narrates, among other events, the night of Toko’s death.

Manu’s is about a mythical taniwha who, on a starry night, swims into the jaws of a sleeping barracuda. Under the light of the stars, the fish looks silver, its eye looks green and its jaws are realistic-looking; however, at other times it is “many-coloured [sic]” (180), its eye “holds tenderness” (180) and its jaws appear to be arms reaching out to embrace.

Granny Taminhana sings about the dead “already walking ahead of her on the pathways” (180).

Finally, Mary’s story can be heard by listening to the whisperings of the meeting house.

Once they have finished telling their stories, the people in meeting house go to sleep. However, there is “one more story to be told” (180).

The last, untold story at the end of the previous chapter is that of Toko, and he tells it from where his spirit now lives, in the carving James has made of him in the meeting house.

On the night of his death, Toko wakes up to find Manu’s bed empty. Even though he knows his brother will come to no harm, Toko gets into his wheelchair and leaves the house to find him. He knows that if his sleepwalking brother wakes up, they will sit and talk for a while; otherwise, he will escort Manu back home, where he will sleep for the rest of the night. As Toko wheels himself along the path that leads to his special door in the meeting house, he sees someone leave the building and run “quickly and darkly into the night” (182). As he backs up the ramp, he hears the familiar sounds of Mary’s singing as she enters the building from the main door. Toko also hears Manu talking and crying. As he approaches the doorway, Manu calls out loudly that there is fire and that it is real. There is then a “bursting sound” (183) and a scream, and as Toko hurries through his doorway, he is killed.

Now, from where he rests, Toko watches people as they work and go about their lives. He sees and hears what is, to the eyes and ears of the living, imperceptible.