REVIEWS & MEDIA
COMMONWEALTH SHORT STORY PACIFIC REGIONAL PRIZE
WHERE THE RĒKOHU BONE SINGS
Untangling the Cross-currents of Identity
Tina Makereti sets herself a bold challenge with her debut novel … and succeeds admirably.
Having won prizes for her short stories, with debut novel Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings Tina Makereti makes a bold foray into an area of New Zealand history that has been largely unrepresented and often misunderstood. Treading carefully, she examines the complexity of modern cultural identities that not only are products of loving cross-cultural relationships but also bear the bloody weight of historical acts of violence and injustice. It’s a lot of work for a novel to do, but Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings manages the load admirably. The novel runs two powerful stories . . . Where the Rekohu Bone Sings is a thoughtful tracing of the complexity of being Moriori, Maori and Pakeha and of finding a place of belonging between cultures. That it does all this while also telling a compelling story is impressive indeed." - Louise O'Brien, NZ Listener
"It is a rare thing for a novel so steeped in history to be simultaneously relevant to modern-day readers. . . . At the book's core is the yearning to understand and identify with contrasting, conflicting heritage. . . . Her story is a balanced blend of New Zealand history and character-driven fiction, one which highlights questions pondered by New Zealanders today." - Rosie Manins, Otago Daily Times
"More than anything, the novel shows how fiction can represent the molecular dance of being human—the strengths, the weakness, the biases—in a way that refreshes your view of things . . . Tina's extraordinary book embraces all manner of loves and strengths but as it faces the challenging and complex effects and behaviours of racism (amongst other issues), it shows too the power of story to delve deep. To take risks. To refract and reflect . . . For me, the pleasure of the reading experience is multi-layered. Every now and then you find a book that satisfies on so many levels. It begins with the sentence—the way each is crafted with such finesse it is like the invisible stitching of fiction (at times though sentences are ambidextrous and are there to promote a visible and audible delight in language as well as to steer the narrative). Then there is the structure the holds the work together beautifully (in this case the entwined rope) along with the characters that gain such flesh and blood you become part of their world and it is a wrench to leave them. Finally there is the way a fictional work can strike you so profoundly, it enters and shakes both heart and intellect. Tina’s book has done all of this." - Paula Green, NZ Poetry Shelf
Tina Makereti sets herself a bold challenge with her debut novel … and succeeds admirably.
Having won prizes for her short stories, with debut novel Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings Tina Makereti makes a bold foray into an area of New Zealand history that has been largely unrepresented and often misunderstood. Treading carefully, she examines the complexity of modern cultural identities that not only are products of loving cross-cultural relationships but also bear the bloody weight of historical acts of violence and injustice. It’s a lot of work for a novel to do, but Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings manages the load admirably. The novel runs two powerful stories . . . Where the Rekohu Bone Sings is a thoughtful tracing of the complexity of being Moriori, Maori and Pakeha and of finding a place of belonging between cultures. That it does all this while also telling a compelling story is impressive indeed." - Louise O'Brien, NZ Listener
"It is a rare thing for a novel so steeped in history to be simultaneously relevant to modern-day readers. . . . At the book's core is the yearning to understand and identify with contrasting, conflicting heritage. . . . Her story is a balanced blend of New Zealand history and character-driven fiction, one which highlights questions pondered by New Zealanders today." - Rosie Manins, Otago Daily Times
"More than anything, the novel shows how fiction can represent the molecular dance of being human—the strengths, the weakness, the biases—in a way that refreshes your view of things . . . Tina's extraordinary book embraces all manner of loves and strengths but as it faces the challenging and complex effects and behaviours of racism (amongst other issues), it shows too the power of story to delve deep. To take risks. To refract and reflect . . . For me, the pleasure of the reading experience is multi-layered. Every now and then you find a book that satisfies on so many levels. It begins with the sentence—the way each is crafted with such finesse it is like the invisible stitching of fiction (at times though sentences are ambidextrous and are there to promote a visible and audible delight in language as well as to steer the narrative). Then there is the structure the holds the work together beautifully (in this case the entwined rope) along with the characters that gain such flesh and blood you become part of their world and it is a wrench to leave them. Finally there is the way a fictional work can strike you so profoundly, it enters and shakes both heart and intellect. Tina’s book has done all of this." - Paula Green, NZ Poetry Shelf
"With its lyrical prose, clever structure and engaging characters, this novel about identity and belonging is also an exploration of the Rekohu massacre that has been neglected and misrepresented. It's also a convincing portrait of 1880s Wellington with all its poverty and racism." - The Breakdown, Capital Magazine, Wellington
"You don't have to be Moriori/Maori/Pakeha to appreciate the issues dealt with in this book. they confront us all." - Paul Little, North & South
"This remarkable first novel spans generations of Moriori, Maori and Pakeha descendants as they grapple with a legacy of pacifism, violent dominatination and cross-cultural dilemmas . . . Tina Makereti has produced a New Zealand classic that is both compelling as a novel and historically fascinating as it explores the Chatham Islands/Rekohu story." - Reading Room, Australian Womens Weekly
"This beautifully written novel describes the essence of family—what it is and who we are. . . . This is a novel which will benefit all who attempt it. I would particularly recommend it to high school students looking for text on identity. Who we are, what we are and how we are is a result of all who have come before as the next generation takes on their own actions and decisions within themselves. Fascinating, and highly readable." - Elizabeth Morrow, Wairarapa Times Age
"There is some excellent writing here. . . . this is a solid and accessible piece of writing, clearly heartfelt by the author and with much vivid representation. A good read." - Nicholas Reid, Sunday Star-Times
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NZ Herald Review by David Hill Again, like her short stories, Where The Rekohu Bone Sings sits the domestic down beside the supernatural. A taniwha seems to lurk in a bread oven; illness stems from a curse as well as a fever. Sun, rain, birdsong are participants as well as setting. An unshrinking book, which faces the issues of Moriori rights and status, the culpability and cultural obligations of Maori as tangata whenua and British as colonists. A generous book also. The author respects her characters but doesn't ignore their sulks and selfishness. People can exploit, enslave, abandon but they can also commit enriching acts of kindness... review continues Finding Identity Inspires Book "It's hard to establish where you belong sometimes," Tina Makereti says candidly, perched on the couch at her Kapiti Coast home. The 40-year-old writer is talking about her personal experience, but she could equally be discussing the characters in her first novel Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings. Identity confusion courses thick through the ambitious debut, which interweaves the stories of three characters separated by time but bound by blood. Mere is a stroppy Maori teen living in the Marlborough Sounds in the 1880s, who is in love with the descendant of a Moriori slave. Lula is a mixed-ethnicity twin – she identifies as Pakeha, her brother, Bigs, looks Maori and embraces that part of his identity. Their mother's death unlocks lost stories, and draws the twins to the Chatham Islands (Rekohu in Moriori) to understand their own Moriori connection... article continues. ONCE UPON A TIME IN AOTEAROAclick titles for full text.
Holding the Baby "The marginal becomes mainstream... The underlying viewpoint of Makereti’s whole anthology is the one Hine-nui-te-po articulates: ‘There would always be this thing between men and women, both grappling with their fear, both loving and maiming and making a mess of it all. Even the gods made mistakes.’ One sister here learns how to exist again from her twin talking Hine’s story – just as Makereti talks tales, so as to reveal that their telling might indicate states of mind beyond just blather: ‘there was a way of understanding the world that went beyond words … the quiet place … was more real than all the words uttered in Babel.’ In the end, it is Makereti’s gift that her pakiwaitara convey the possibility of a transcendent silence." - Vaughan Rapatahana, The Landfall Review Online, 2011 Te Karaka Review "What a fascinating and potent collection of tales with familiar characters and situations from the mists of Aotearoa. Time has been remodelled and dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. When you read the first story (there are 13), you will be intrigued, stimulated, and maybe even challenged by this telling of how the first woman was created. The story is right in your face and sets the tone for what follows. Tina Makereti offers us modern-day, perfectly credible, and totally unique versions of the stories of Tāne, Māui, Taranga and others. I highly recommend this enthralling book." - Fern Whitau, Spring 2010 Maori Myths Under a Spell "Makereti's alloyed style of writing disturbs default settings of time and space... Mortals and humans with god-like gifts talk to each other up and down generations, raising political questions about Aotearoa New Zealand now. In The God-child, we read that the world is "inhabited by a pulse of life fractured into a splendid multiplicity", which passes "through everything like a wave". It is from this wave's atoms that Makereti fashions her clever yet effortless stories of second sight. - Claire McIntosh, NZ Listener Sept 2010 Stories of Empathy and Vision "Thirteen quirky, cheeky, edgy stories from a new writer whose inventiveness and empathy mark her as one to watch. Tina Makereti's characters move among places and people where mundane blends with marvellous; colloquial with lyrical; violent with self-sacrificial... Makereti is able to take a moment and examine its reality, even as she turns it into something symbolic and transcending." - David Hill, NZ Herald June 2010 North and South Review "...this debut collection of stories is a gem... Tina Makereti is not just one to watch, she is one to read and enjoy now." While Gods Walk Among Us in Aotearoa... "Although the settings and characters are unmistakably of this country, they are suffused with a magic realism that lends the stories a mythic quality. In the same way that the gods and ancestors are ever present in te ao Maori, Makereti's New Zealand is one watched over by the mountains and the moon, and the old ways coexist with the new. It is a country where gods and goddesses walk among us; love, hope and redemption are powerful forces - and where "there are more than two kinds of people in the world after all" - Cushla McKinney, Otago Daily Times July 2010 A Taonga to be Proud of "I found this collection difficult to put down... There are a few tear-jerkers and this fact alone attests to the skill of the author... Finally, the cover art is indeed "exquisite"..." - Naida Mulligan, The Southland Times Aug 2010 |
