Ao Toa Read online

  Cathie Dunsford is the author of five novels including Cowrie and Manawa Toa. She has edited numerous anthologies and is director of Dunsford Publishing Consultants (www.dunsfordpublishing.com), which has brought more than 150 new and award-winning Pacific writers into print. A former Fulbright scholar, she has taught writing, literature and publishing at Auckland University since 1975 and now teaches workshops through Global Dialogues, Frankfurt. Her series of novels about Cowrie has been published in English, German and Turkish. Her non-fiction guide, Getting Published: The Inside Story was launched at the 2003 Frankfurt Book Fair. Cathie Dunsford has received arts council funding for her novels and was awarded the Landshoff Literary Grant (Germany) in 2001. In 2003 she toured Germany and Turkey speaking about her books and has been a guest at several international writers’ festivals in the UK and Europe.

  OTHER BOOKS BY CATHIE DUNSFORD

  Fiction

  Cowrie

  The Journey Home: Te Haerenga Kainga

  Manawa Toa: Heart Warrior

  Song of the Selkies

  Poetry

  Survivors: Überlebende

  Non-fiction

  Getting Published: The Inside Story

  Anthologies

  New Women’s Fiction

  The Exploding Frangipani [co-editor]

  Subversive Acts

  Me and Marilyn Monroe

  Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love [co-editor]

  Ao Toa

  EARTH WARRIORS

  Cathie Dunsford

  Spinifex Press Pty Ltd

  504 Queensberry Street

  North Melbourne, Vic. 3051

  Australia

  [email protected]

  http://www.spinifexpress.com.au

  First published by Spinifex Press, 2004

  Copyright © Text: Cathie Dunsford, 2004

  Copyright © Typesetting and layout: Spinifex Press Pty Ltd, 2004

  Copyright © Woodcut designs: Cathie Dunsford, Artist, Starfish Enterprise Art, New Zealand 2004

  Thanks to the Landshoff Literary Foundation, Hamburg, for awarding a literary grant that provided for the research and writing of Ao Toa.

  Copying for educational purposes

  Where copies of part or the whole of the book are made under part VB of the Copyright Act, the law requires that prescribed procedures be followed. For information, contact the Copyright Agency Limited.

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved

  above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or

  introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any

  means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),

  without prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the

  above publisher of the book.

  Edited by Janet Mackenzie

  Typeset by Claire Warren

  Cover design by Deb Snibson, Modern Art Production Group, based on woodcut design by Cathie Dunsford

  Made and printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group.

  National Library of Australia

  Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

  Dunsford Cathie, 1953-.

  Ao Toa: Earth warriors

  ISBN 1 876756 43 8.

  I. Genetic engineering - Fiction. I. Title.

  NZ823.2

  ISBN 978-1-74219-011-2 Master e-book ISBN

  ISBN 978-1-74219-398-4 (ePub Format)

  Ao Toa is dedicated to all those working towards a GE-free world.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Mahalo, thanks, to:

  Dr Karin Meissenburg: critical feedback at all stages of the writing and research and her total belief in my work and the need for a GE-free world.

  Dr Susan Hawthorne: critical feedback and sharp editorial skills that improved the text.

  Dr Renate Klein and Dr Susan Hawthorne: supporting alternative South Pacific, indigenous and academic writers into print through Spinifex Press.

  Dr Laurel Guymer, Export Manager, Spinifex Press: instrumental in getting Cowrie novel series into translations in Europe, for her affirmation of the novels and her energy and humour while working to get Pacific authors into foreign translations.

  Silke Weniger, German literary agent: her belief in my work and selling German rights.

  Janet Mackenzie: acutely perceptive copy editing skills and making the process enjoyable.

  Beryl Fletcher: Literary support, aroha and humour at all times during the writing.

  Dr Monika Treut: Touring Tai Tokerau with me and filming Maori alternative political activists, visionaries and those working towards a GE-free future.

  Keri Hulme, Witi Ihimaera, Powhiri Rika-Heke, Carolyn Gammon, Katharina Oguntoye, Lili Neuheus: being mentors and always supporting my work.

  Professor Ahimsa Bodhran: for teaching the Cowrie novel series at Brooklyn College, New York alongside Patricia Grace and Kiana Davenport.

  Rogner & Bernhard, Hamburg, and Okuyanus Publishers, Istanbul: publishing the Cowrie novel series in translation in Germany and Turkey and supporting literary tours and performances in Europe.

  Tamaki Makarau and Tawharanui Whanau, who support me daily in my life and work.

  Dunsford Publishing Consultants: allowing me time off editing manuscripts to write.

  Addenda: NZ distribution and marketing of Cowrie novel series.

  PERMISSIONS

  Mahalo to all those who gave permission for their work to be included in this text:

  Barbara Kingsolver: “No Glory in an Unjust War on the Weak”, Los Angeles Times, 14 October 2001. Kia ora, Barbara, for your courageous books and for fighting for a better world and speaking the truth. You have been a stunning mentor. Mahalo.

  New Zealand Green Party: Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons and Sue Bradford, MP: for permission to use their parliamentary speeches in this novel.

  Thanks also to: Greenpeace; GE-Free Register; North Shore Times (Pat Booth); and all others who willingly gave permission to use their work towards a GE-Free Aotearoa.

  Na rangi taua, na Tu-a-nuku e takoto nei: You and I [all of us] are both from the sky father and earth mother. Mahalo – thanks.

  She surfs the jade wave on the shell of a turtle, then strokes ashore to banana leaves mounded up with papaya, coconuts, pineapples and mangoes. Persimmons are sliced so that their bright orange flesh and black seeds flow onto the fruits below like Pele erupting over Kiluaea. The turtle swims into the belly of the wave while Maata dances up the hot sand towards the feasting fruit. Her mouth waters in anticipation. A pink smoked salmon reveals fresh cream cheese oozing from her insides and bright green fennel billowing from her wake like waves. The aroma of mussels cooked in garlic and feijoa champagne greets her. Fresh rock oysters lie seductively in their shells, swimming in lemon juice and basil pesto. Haunting flutesong echoes over the waters. A powhiri is called from the dunes as the wahine emerge, each bearing fresh fruit and salads and taro leaves which embrace purple and yellow kumara dripping in butter. They welcome Maata in celebration. It is her sixteenth birthday.

  Maata prepares a waiata in reply, but suddenly she notices the ground beneath her moving. The salmon twitches to reveal it has three heads, its tail flapping wildly on the mat. Black blood drips from the wounded persimmon and green sludge oozes out of the mussels. Swelling cream cheese releases pus, and boily protrusions burst from the sweltering fruit. She tries to run but her feet slide deeper into the black sand until it reaches her neck. She screams.

  “Maata, sweet Maata. Calm down,” Mere croons, holding Maata’s head in her lap. “It’s just a nightmare. You’re safe, here in the Hokianga, in clean green Aotearoa.” Clean and green – that’s what they say when fighting against nuclear power plant
s and now for any cause imaginable. It reinforces the sense that to live in paradise, you have to protect that paradise.

  Maata is still shaking, horrified by what she saw. She tries to describe it to Mere.

  “You’ve been spending too much time with Irihapeti and Cowrie doing all that work against genetic engineering. It’s put weird ideas into your brain. Now think of the beauty of nature, imagine Tane Mahuta nurturing you as a part of the forest and all wildlife within.” Mere caresses Maata’s hair and soothes her nerves. “Or Tangaroa protecting you in the ocean.”

  “Or Turtle Woman rescuing me from the sea, like that day when I nearly drowned,” adds Maata.

  “Ka pae. Laukiamanuikahiki is always there for you. Never forget that.” Mere grins and reaches for Maata’s cherished furry friend, Willemina Wombat. Maata clasps the grinning creature in her arms, as if a child again, and lets the tears fall to the flax mat.

  Irihapeti and Cowrie show the tamariki of Te Kotuku how to cut the flax leaves to preserve the plant. Iri begins at the edges. “These outer leaves either side are the grandparents and you work inwards towards the parents and then the children. This way you always make sure the plant has a heart from which the source of new life can spring.”

  “Ya mean you cut off the oldies to preserve the kids?” Kiri looks up gleefully.

  “Another way to look at it is that you take the best leaves to make your flax kete and leave the rest for regeneration,” replies Iri, with a grin.

  “And a bit more respect for your whanau wouldn’t go amiss, Kiri.” Cowrie hands her the cut flax leaf.

  “Ka pae.” Kiri holds it up for all to see.

  Once giving thanks and harvesting of the spiky leaves has taken place, Cowrie gathers the tamariki around to show them how to prepare the flax strands for weaving by shearing them with the shell of a green-lip mussel. “You hold the flax like this and then strip the leaf by firmly moving the shell down the flax until you have a much more flexible strand to use for weaving.” The tamariki are keen to try, and in the course of the morning they end up with a mound of broken mussel shells. Cowrie returns to see how they are progressing.

  “What’s this, Tama? You’re s’posed to be weaving, not preparing a midden!” Everyone laughs, looking at the mound of broken shells next to Tama, as if he has feasted on them all.

  Tama looks up, surprised, then grins when he sees the midden of shells from all the others too. “No worries, Cowrie. I could eat that lot in one go! Beats McDonald’s any day!” The kids snigger. There is no McDonald’s in the entire Hokianga area, much to the delight of their parents. But when the kids finally got to Kaitaia to try this mythical food, they barfed on it, declaring it tasteless and the bread like cardboard. “Give me rewana any day!” shouted Kiri with glee, taking a piece of the Maori potato bread from her backpack and exchanging it for the sad-looking cheeseburger. Not all the boys agreed, of course. Some liked the wrapping and image and were not to be put off.

  Cowrie retreats to the nursery café to catch up with Irihapeti. “How’s that lover of yours, Iri? Haven’t seen her in a while.”

  Iri pours spirulina into both their glasses. “I dunno what’s up with Koa. She’s been real sick. Constant sore throat, vomiting, diarrhoea, nausea. You name it, she’s got it.”

  “Poor thing. Sounds like she’s got the bot, girl.”

  “Yeah, but she’s had these symptoms for years now. It’s not just a few weeks or a few months. It began long before I met her and she’s been to heaps of doctors and they all just say it’s some form of ME cos she’s exhausted all the time too.”

  “Koa’s got such a great energy and spirit. I’m amazed. She hides it well.”

  “She’s used to it. She seldom goes out after dark and gets heaps of rest. Only those really close to her get to see the real Koa.” Iri slurps down her last sip of HOGS – Hokianga Organic Green Stuff, as spirulina is locally known.

  “What’d she do before coming here, Iri?”

  “Worked at Moana Botanical Gardens for twelve years. She discovered a new breed of flax by crossing the red with the green, and it’s great for weaving.”

  “She’s not into genetic engineering is she?”

  “No way! She specialises in grafting so that’s why she’s been a taonga from Pele for Te Kotuku Organic Nursery. But she’s as anti GE and GM as we are.”

  “Glad to hear it, too!” Cowrie tucks into a roasted kumara with grilled Puhoi blue cheese on top and sea-green basil pesto running down the purple sides of the sweet potato. “Ahhhh. Bliss. Beats a lover any day!”

  “That’s just cos you left Sasha in Orkney. Bet if she was to turn up here tomorrow you’d swap a roasted kumara for her in a second.”

  Cowrie grins. “Well, no, I’d insist on both. And clap-shot to boot!”

  “What the hell’s clapshot? Sounds like some very nasty genital herpes.”

  “Bugger off, Iri. It’s the most delicious vegetarian dish you’ll ever eat. Orkney potatoes mashed up with swedes and turnips and butter and onion – whatever you like – and served as hot as sweet chilli sauce on the tongue. Yum!”

  “Yeah, I think I read about that in your letters to Mere. She laughed and said ‘Bloody typical. My daughter likes the Orkney food a lot better than the weather.’”

  “I sure as hell did, too. But clapshot was nuthin’ next to Orkney scallops from Seafayre and spoots from Waulkmill Bay and lobster dripping with Swanney cheese and home-grown garlic … yum …” Cowrie licks her lips at the memory.

  “Stop it, girl. You know I am a hundred per cent vegan now. I can’t do all that kai moana any more.”

  “Wish I could say the same, Iri. But I live for the fruits of the sea. It’s in my bones. While cousin Keo is still fishing at Punalu’u, it’s the least I can do to support the family heritage.”

  Irihapeti grabs a bowl of marinated barbecued mussels and places them before Cowrie. “Okay, girl. Go for it. I’m off to see how the tamariki are enjoying their weaving.”

  “I’ll follow soon.” Cowrie plunges into the mussels, savouring every mouthful. Some still have beards poking out deliciously from their orange and brown vulva lips. Perfectly hermaphroditic, notes Cowrie, as she dips them into the garlic sauce and wishes Sasha were here with her now.

  The Pratt family sit down to a roast dinner after a hard day’s work on their farm. Moana insists on karakia to give thanks for their meal. Tony insists on carving the roast, as it’s a bloke’s task. “Now Matthew, James, Robert, watch how I do this because you will be carving meat for your wives and children before long. You don’t want to make dicks of yerselves.” He jabs the long fork his grandfather gave him into the rump of the pig until blood oozes from its thighs. “Bloody hell, woman, a pig’s not s’posed to bleed. How long’ve ya cooked it?”

  “Long enough. It’ll be fine, Tony. And I’d rather you called the boys by their real names: Mattiu, Hemi and Rapata. That’s what we agreed and they’ll get mocked at kohanga reo and kura kaupapa schools for using those Christian Pakeha names. We named them so at birth and nothing’s changed.”

  Tony looks up from the bleeding leg and raises his knife toward Moana. “Heaps has changed, Moana. I bought this land and got the kids away from Te Kotuku marae so we wouldn’t be lectured to by those brown bastards. They’re my kids and they can go by proper Christian names. It’s the twenty-first century and we ain’t livin’ in the Stone Age no more. Right boys?” The three brothers nod their heads quietly. They know better than to contradict their father. But they also know to use their Maori names at school for fear of being ostracised. One of the struggles of their bicultural parentage is to learn the knack of trying to combine the two cultures to please everyone. It’s not easy.

  Tony launches an attack on the pig, slicing thick, juicy steaks from its loins and making a show of plonking them onto the plates so they see how clever he is at getting precisely the same serving each time. Precision is important to Tony when it comes to portions and fairness in sharing out fo
od. His family never had much, and he is determined his kids will fare better. Slice by slice, the once happy, grunting beast foraging in the fields near their house is whittled away until its bones gleam from its carcass. As the last slice lands on Mattiu’s plate, he bursts into tears. Tony glares at him. “Pull it together, boy, or I’ll have to use my belt.” He loosens his belt in preparation and slides it from his waistband. Mattiu shrinks further into his seat.

  “Go easy, Tony. He’s still upset that you killed Babe,” whispers Moana.

  “Babe? Babe! This ain’t no bloody Hollywood film about pigs that babble like bloody women! This is a working farm and this” – he rips a hunk of Babe from her bones – “this is bloody pork, not some bloody cartoon character from a Disney film. I farm this pork and I bring home the bacon and without this work, you buggers’d all starve. Get real, Matthew. Be a man! You eat bacon and this is pork! Pull yerself together, boy. You look like a bloody fruit-cake whimpering there low down in ya seat.” Tony picks up his belt and cracks it against the back of Mattiu’s chair, making the boy cringe even further into his seat. “I’m warning you, boy. One more whimper like that and you’ll get this belt across your bloody arse!” Mattiu shoves his chair away from the table and runs to his room. Tony grabs his belt and follows. Moana pulls his arm, trying to get him to drop the belt, but he throws her aside and enters the room. The house is eerily silent as they listen to Tony whipping Matthew hard. One, two, three, four, five …

  Moana rushes to the door. “That’s enough, Tony. Once more and I’ll take the kids back to the marae.” Tony’s arm stops in mid-air as he is about to crack the belt down on Matthew a sixth time. He doesn’t want her to leave, or the boys. He needs them all to make the farm work. He’d have to hire outside help if they left, and he knows Moana realises this and uses it against him deliberately.