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Kete Books (online)

“Kerikeri is a vital landmark in my memory banks, so it is with delight I read Ngā Ripo Wai: Swirling Waters, an anthology of multi-genre writings linked to the area. … The opening piece, ‘Te Riu o Ngāti Rēhia’, stands as a mihi, welcoming us to writing that embraces place, people, experience, history and memory from multiple points of view. There is Tokerau Mountain, Kororipo Pā, Kerikeri River, the iconic stone store, the inlet, various mission houses, the arts communities. The physicality of place is enhanced by the way place is peopled; layered with complex and at times conflicting histories and experiences.… The anthology is structured like a piece of music that allows distinctive notes, chimes, chords, tones, ideas.… It begins with the local and it makes the local significant as it celebrates complexity, connection, creativity.… As readers and writers, we are breathing in and out the possibilities of words.”
Paula Green

North & South Magazine (February 2022, p88-89)

“This commendable anthology … attempts to do justice to the many facets of Kerikeri, and in general achieves that aim. It digs much deeper than the tourist-friendly establishments … As Lynne Hill’s untitled poem says: “history looks different here”.…One of the most attractive features of the anthology is the wide variety of contributors.… Dallon August’s beautiful cover artwork of a landscape with pou, shrouded in a mist that evokes the living presence of history and the need to make things clear sets the tone perfectly.”
Paul Little

Now that we have revealed the cover, we thought you might like a peek inside Ngā Ripo Wai | Swirling Waters. On the pages, Kerikeri’s uneven terrain is explored through poems, ultra-short stories, interviews and histories written in te reo Māori and English. Here is a taste of what you can expect.

Extract from “Central Motel” by Barbara Wrigley

Driving along Kerikeri’s main street one sunny morning, I saw our toilet and bath stark naked on the footpath. 

Extract from “Orangins” by Vivian Thonger

We spot a laden branch hanging over the pavement.
You twist one round fruit off its stalk—warm, blemished
the colour less dazzling in close-up. Sweet juice stickies
our hands. You ask which came first, the fruit or the colour.

Whakatauki by Kipa Munro

ko te ārautanga
o tōku herenga
he ātarangi

tomorrow’s sunshine
is my reward
for yesterday’s shadows

Extract from “Northland river koromiko” by Piet Nieuwland

In summer, on the forested banks of the Kerikeri River, there are plants with dense masses of white to pale-mauve flowers. One of these plants is called Hebe acutifolia …

Hebe was the goddess of youth …

Extract from “Safe landing” by Bruce Hudson

An in-flight emergency
above a bay full of islands
my face contorts
paper bag ready
no lives at risk

“Take the controls” says the pilot …

Extract from “Flood of ‘81” by Tania Aslund

We nudged a dead sheep away from the rocks with an oar and rowed out to look at the boats. Launches and yachts listless at slack water, their dock lines shredded, paintwork dinged, hulls bashed. Some were still attached to their pole mooring, like towing a battering ram.