Bones – Panirau

It’s an up-rising
It’s a down-falling
It’s layers and layers and layers

Of soil
Of concrete
Of pain and loss
Of searching and wondering
Of saying ‘this is our tūrangawaewae’
Of blank stares, of disbelief, of eye rolls,
‘ka pai, that’s what you say’

It’s not so much what I say
It’s what is
It’s what we’ve known
It’s what we know
It’s the revelations that keep coming
It’s the bones that are articulating
It’s the roads that are criss-crossing
It’s the records loudly calling
It’s the jaw bone emanating
It’s the rongoā propagating

It’s the return to where we are
To where we’ve always been
Iwi, kōiwi, iwi, kōiwi
People, bones, strength, descendants
Paparanga, apaapa,
Whakapaparanga
Layers and layers and layers.

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Hana Buchanan (Taranaki, Te Atiawa, Taranaki Whānui ki te Upoko o te Ika) descends from a long line of Taranaki artists and creatives. She is a member of Te Aro Pā Poets, living and writing on her tūpuna whenua in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Hana writes poetry in English and toikupu in te reo Māori.