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In her very first festival appearance following the publication of Kataraina, Becky Manawatu discusses the highly anticipated sequel to her bestselling debut novel, Auē, alongside friend and fellow kaituhi Māori Talia Marshall, whose essay collection, Whaea Blue, is one of this year’s most anticipated non-fiction pukapuka. Chaired by Nuki Takao. In Auē, eight-year-old Ārama was taken by his brother, Taukiri, to live with Kat and Stu at the farm in Kaikōura, setting in train the tragedy that unfolded. Ārama’s aunty Kat was at the centre of events, but silenced by abuse her voice was absent from the story. In Kataraina, Kat and her whānau take over the telling. As one, they return to her childhood and the time when she first began to feel the greenness of the swamp in her veins – the swamp that holds her tears and the tears of her tīpuna, the swamp on the land owned by Stu that has been growing since the girl shot the man.
Becky Manawatu’s new novel Kataraina is the much-awaited sequel to award-winning bestseller Auē and is unflinching in its portrayal of the destructive ways people love one another and the ancestral whenua on which they stand.
In Whaea Blue, time and whakapapa slowly unravel as Talia Marshall weaves her way across Aotearoa in a roster of decaying European cars. Along the way – which involves time in Te Tauihu – she will meet her father, pick up a ghost, transform into a wharenui, and make cocktail hour with Ans Westra. Tempestuous and haunting, Whaea Blue is a tribute to collective memory, the elasticity of self, and the women we travel through. It is a karanga to and from the abyss. It is a journey to peace.
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Nelson Arts Festival
24 October - 3 November 2024
nelsonartsfestival.nz
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Suter Theater, 208 Bridge St, Nelson 7010, New Zealand,Nelson, New Zealand
Tickets
