Contributing authors of Ngā Ripo Wai place their hands on the book during a blessing at Kerikeri's Old Packhouse Market. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Contributing authors of Ngā Ripo Wai place their hands on the book during a blessing at Kerikeri's Old Packhouse Market. Photo / Peter de Graaf
A newly published anthology aims to capture as broad a range of writing about Kerikeri as possible within the covers of a single book.
Ngā Ripo Wai/Swirling Waters brings together interviews, poems, short stories and historical accounts in English and te reo Māori.
The writers are a mix of well-known authors and poets such as Fiona Kidman and Glen Colquhoun through to high-school students, all with a connection to the Bay of Islands town.
The book was launched on Sunday at the Old Packhouse Market with many of the writers present, though some were stuck in Auckland's lockdown.
The pieces were collected by a combination of reaching out to established authors and a public call for entries, then edited by literary sisters Kathy Derrick and Jac Jenkins of Pavlova Press and Ngāti Rēhia leader Kipa Munro.
Ngāti Rēhia's Kipa Munro, left, leads the blessing with Mariao Hohaia and publisher Kathy Derrick. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Munro, who also led the book's blessing, said people needed something to lift them up at this time.
''And we will be lifted up by the stories gathered here. They present back to our community in ways they may not have heard before, or that will give them a different perspective."
Derrick said the goal was to include as many different voices as possible.
The concept was born out of Kerikeri's bicentenary in 2019. The original idea was to publish a book with 200 writers, one for each year since the town's foundation as a joint Māori-European settlement.
The result had 44 contributors but offered a broad range of young and old, Māori, Pākehā and other ethnicities, established writers and high-school students.
''It's not a complete representation of Kerikeri, but it is a start.''
Ngā Ripo Wai contributing writers, from left, Lilly Hulse, 12, Bella Booth, 13, and Lucy Spice, 15, from Springbank School. Photo / Peter de Graaf
She said the book explored ''the uneven terrain of Kerikeri and its history, from the pā to the store, from the warrior to the gardener, from the chain-mail coat to the black singlet to the Māori Battalion tie pin, from the orchards to the river banks, from the airport to the Old Packhouse Market and the galleries''.
The publishers had hoped for a grand, all-inclusive launch but Covid restrictions forced a more intimate event.
Other writers include Heather McQuillan, Piet Nieuwland, Vivienne Plumb, Vaughan Rapatahana and Briar Wood. The cover art is by Dallon August, of Rawene.
Be in to win
We have a copy of Ngā Ripo Wai/Swirling Waters to give away. To be in to win, all you have to do is name one of the contributors and email peter.degraaf@nzme.co.nz with your name, postal address and phone number.
