Potiki

Potiki, a novel by Patricia Grace originally published in 1986, tells the story of a Maori community in New Zealand and their struggle for survival against the attempts of land developers to buy, bully and coerce them off their land. What the developers fail to understand about this community, however, is that no amount of money can entice these people away from their sacred land and buildings, and that there is ultimately more strength in the collective efforts of a community working together to fight injustice than there is in corruption and unbridled power. The story is narrated at times by Roimata, at times by Toko, and the rest of the time by an unspecified third voice. These fragmented recounts take the form of the characters' memories of events or flashbacks and are located at different points in the past. Often, two chapters may narrate the same event but from the viewpoints of two different characters. The result is a patchwork of events from different points in time and different perspectives that collectively tell a rich and powerful story.

The novel’s Prologue tells the story of the carver who made the wharenui (Maori meeting house) for the community who form the subject of the novel. Breaking one of the principle rules of his trade, which dictates that the poupou (carved wooden figures) that adorn the meeting house may not depict an ancestor from living memory, he carves a representation of himself. However, because he has no children, he is unable to complete the carving and tells his people that the space under his feet must be left empty until a future time.

Roimata begins Part 1 by introducing the reader to her family: her husband, Hemi, and their four children, James, Tangi, Manu, and Toko. They live with Hemi's sister, Mary, who dusts and polishes the meeting house on a daily basis and has a special affection for the last poupou made by the carver from the Prologue. Roimata has known and loved both Hemi and Mary since she was 5 years old.

She relates the story of her return home after twelve years spent away at the wishes of her dead father, upon which she finds Hemi, his family, and the wider Maori community mourning the loss of Hemi’s mother. He believes her return was somehow predestined and is happy to see her. Roimata then tells the story of the day Mary gives birth to Toko in the sea, which comes as a surprise to the whole family, who did not even suspect Mary of being pregnant. The baby is shockingly deformed; however, as he grows older, it becomes apparent that he has a special knowledge and the gift of foresight. Toko foresees that there is some sort of conflict in store for their community and warns Roimata about it. Meanwhile, Hemi loses his job and seizes this opportunity to resume his dream of working on the land as a means of providing a livelihood for his family and community, which is an occupation he had been forced to give up years earlier. Part 1 ends with Toko's narration of the neighboring Te Ope tribe, who were victims of the postcolonial government's project to claim land that rightfully belonged to the Maori community and develop it into so-called amenities. This story foreshadows the events narrated in Part 2.

Part 2 opens with a detailed account of one of the many meetings that take place between the Maori people and the property developer, Mr. Dolman, whom the people have nicknamed the Dollarman, reflecting the mercenary motivations behind all arguments he uses to try to persuade the Maori people to give up their land and allow their meeting house and burial ground to be moved. Although the Maori people's refusal to grant the developers permission to build roads at the front of their houses is for the time being respected, work eventually begins on the demolishing the hills behind their land to make new access roads to the future resort. Meanwhile, Hemi's plans to develop the gardens and market some of the produce come to fruition, and the community takes pleasure in reviving its somewhat lost traditions. There is a week of protests, in which people from the local community as well as some of the younger Maoris block the roads holding placards and signs; however, this does not halt the construction work for long.

As usual, the summer brings heavy rain and the people awake one morning to find that their burial ground has been flooded, causing one side of it to wash away. They are informed by Matiu and Timoti, who belong to a different tribe and work for the construction company contracted to carry out the work, that the flooding was deliberately caused by the construction of a dam built to channel water towards the Maori land. An official inquiry is launched into the incident but its results are inconclusive and the Maori people are found to be at fault for tampering with the evidence.

The next strategy of the developers to remove the Maori from their land is to target their meeting house by setting fire to it. Although the community is initially distraught by the loss of their sacred building, Mary manages to salvage the remains of her beloved poupou from the debris and, with the support of Te Ope people, the people build a new meeting house. A special door is carved for Toko and his wheelchair in the new meeting house and he is given a special place to sit: under Mary's poupou.

At the beginning of Part 3, we learn that Toko has died. The chapters that follow recount how this tragedy occurred: one night he goes searching for his brother, Manu, who has wandered to the meeting house in his sleep. Upon entering the building through his special door, he is killed. Soon after his death, James, who has learned the skill of carving, realizes that Toko is the person destined to fill the space that the childless master carver had left under his poupou. He therefore carves out a poupou representing Toko, giving his dead brother a new home inside the meeting house.

Through the stories that the members of the Maori community share with one another one evening in the meeting house, we learn that Tangi has achieved her goal of seeking justice for her brother's murder, as well as for the other crimes against her people, and that the following day the family will accompany her and James to court.