Top Quotes: “Pounamu Pounamu” — Witi Ihimaera

“Dealing all the good cards to yourself Mrs Heta muttered.

“You cheat, Miro. And she made her googly eye reach far over to see Nani’s cards.

You think you can see, Maka tiko bum? Nani coughed.

‘You think you’re going to win this hand, eh? Well, eat your heart out and take that!’ She slammed down a full house.

The other women goggled at the cards. Mrs Heta looked at her own cards. She did a swift calculation and yelled:

“Eee! You cheat, Miro! I got two aces in my hand already! Only four in the pack. How come you got three aces in your hand?’

Everybody laughed. Nani and Mrs Heta started squabbling as they always did, pointing at each other and saying:

‘You the cheat, not me!’ And Nani Miro said: ‘I saw you, Maka tiko bum, I saw you sneaking that card from under the blanket.’

She began to laugh. Her eyes streamed with tears.

While she was laughing, she died.”

“The game began. It was a match showing all the expertise of military manoeuvres, and the women played it superbly.

If you couldn’t reach the ball and a rival player could, you threw your stick at it or her.

If you swung at the ball and missed, you swung again.

Whatever you hit, player or ball, it was all the same. If you missed the ball and hit the player, too bad for her. She shouldn’t have been in the road anyway.

If you hadn’t played the game before and you didn’t know what to do when the ball came your way, don’t worry about it: just sit on it. Then the referee would blow the whistle and the game would start again.

Not to worry if you got hit yourself. Just remember who it was who hit you and, some time later in the game, hit her back.

See? It was an easy game.

‘This isn’t hockey,’ Jerry said. Look at that girl! She’s standing way off side.’

‘Oh, that’s all right,’ I answered. ‘She’s from Waituhi. Nani Kepa is refereeing this game. He’s from Waituhi too.’

“But that’s favouritism!°

No it isn’t. That other team won last year. It wouldn’t be fair ..

I know, Jerry sighed, .. if they win again this year!”

“On the next round, we left Mr Hohepa’s stores at the third gate.

The round after that, his stores were left at the second gate.

On the third round, just inside the first gate.

And on the fourth, Mr Hohepa’s stores were deposited on the side of the road.

And always, Mrs Jones would wave and beep the horn at Mr Hohepa before leaving, and I would see his eyes glowing from the shadow of the verandah.”

“‘Who’s out there?’ a voice yelled.

‘Miiaaow,’ I answered.

No footsteps came. But I clung to the shadows for a long time, not daring to move. Then I sneaked inside.”

“Jack Simmons had since come to understand that borrowing was a common Maori trait: what’s yours is mine, what’s mine is yours. Maybe it was acceptable practice among Maori people but this city suburb was certainly not a Maori community. Things were different now. The land, its occupants and their possessions no longer belonged to them. It belonged to him, Jack Simmons. His land was like the land bought by settlers after the Treaty of Waitangi.

The sooner they understood that, the better.”