Title: Pounamu, pounamu
First published: 1972
Description: 'Pounamu, Pounamu' is the first collection of short stories by a Maori writer to be published. 'Pounamu, Pounamu' means 'Greenstone, Greenstone' - a lyrical phrase which conveys the haunting quality of most stories in this collection. Look through the greenstone and you will see: * An old woman searching the beach for shells to give her grandson * A young boy on a summer morning rushing happily towards manhood * An old man sitting alone in a darkening meeting house * A large sports gathering in a small Maori village * A young man approaching the meeting house to mourn his father. 'Pounamu, Pounamu' is Witi Ihimaera's distinctive view of rural Maori life. It deals with happiness and sadness, and always with aroha. It is his personal vision of Maori life as it is now (1970's) and of its values now. It has been written both with anger and with love - aroha - in the hope that such a life, the values of that life, will never be lost. Table of contents: * A Game of Cards * Beginning of the Tournament * The Makutu on Mrs Jones * Fire on Greenstone * The Other Side of the Fence * In Search of the Emerald City * One Summer Morning * The Child * The Whale * Tangi.
Subjects: Maori (New Zealand people), Fiction
LC classification: PZ4.I24 Po, PR9639.3.I5 Po