Potiki

The day after the fire, the Maori community are visited by the friends who helped them in the aftermath of the flooding, as well by police, journalists and members of the fire brigade. Granny Tamihana, the only member of the family whose spirit is not utterly broken by the events of the previous night, galvanizes the others into attending to their visitors. Observing her, Toko realizes that “loss and sorrow were ordinary in her life” (140) and that she has learned over the years that there is nothing to be gained from being angry. Aside from recognizing the importance of re-establishing the usual routine, she also encourages her family to discuss what has happened. Hoani, the minister, leads a karakia (service) “to put evil away” (141) and instill a spirit of goodness and caring among the members of the community. They then gut the house and sort through the timbers, looking for anything that the fire has spared, and bury the debris. At the end of the day, they wash and bathe in the lagoon, at which point Reuben, Hiria and other people from Te Ope arrive to share in their grief and support them. They have brought tents with them, which they set up as a workshop for the planning and rebuilding of the community’s meeting house.

The Maori people receive support from all over the country in the form of gifts, tradespeople, craftspeople, money and letters of encouragement. They go on excursions to seek out the plants and materials required to build and adorn the wharenui and set up shelters to allow the materials to dry out. As they work, they become “caught up in the excitement of planning, building and decorating the new house” (143), as well as exhausted from the hard labor they are carrying out on the house and the gardens. Even Toko, who cannot exert himself due to his condition, works on the tutkutuku (latticework) for the meeting house. Among the workers is a carver from Te Ope, who has passed on his skills to James and some of the others. They are so preoccupied by their work that they are able to ignore the “blasting of the hills and the shore rock” (145) and the further requests they receive for their land.

As he finishes his work in the gardens one late afternoon in the fall, having sent the younger workers to the wharekai (dining hall) early, Hemi contemplates whether or not it is right that “their young lives were being spent bent over the land” (146), like his was. He also reflects on the good harvest they have had this season, much of which they have been able to send to market. His thoughts then turn to the struggle to recover from the flooding, as well as the fire and the importance of having the help and support of others at such times. He compares his way of dealing with these misfortunes with Tangi’s, whose anger over the injustice of these incidents has led her to leave the whanau and reject Pena’s attempts to bring her home. He wonders whether he should talk to Reuben, who shares Tangi’s defiance with regard to the designs that outsiders have on their land, about whether or not they are right to try to temper her emotions. He also worries about whether the hard work on the land will drive some of the remaining community away, like it did those who returned home temporarily due to unemployment. He then remembers the presence that had visited him the previous night and “sat on him, heavily [...] as he half slept” (150) and wonders whether it could be some sort of warning. He decides to keep this to himself for the time being and continue with his duty of trying to “keep the home warm” (150).

Roimata acknowledges the truth in Toko’s premonitions that the lives of her people were about to change, as she contemplates the “changing landscape” (151) caused by the construction work. She realizes that the strength that had once characterized her people has been replaced by fear and uncertainty regarding the future. She remembers Reuben’s warning that the land developers will not stop until they achieve their goal of forcing the Maori people off their land. She also notes the “excitement” and “energy” (151) that had been created by the reconstruction of the house and gardens, despite the threat they live under. She then remembers the help given by the Te Ope people, who understand the deep significance their meeting households, a significance that can never be understood by those who carried out the inquiry into the fire and suggested that it was the Maori people themselves who caused the fire. Finally, she comments on Tangi’s decision to leave the whanau due to her inability to understand her family’s acceptance of the attacks on their livelihood.

Toko describes a special door in the new meeting house that has been built for him by his uncles, in order to allow him to access the building in his wheelchair. James has carved the doorway to portray the special relationship that has formed between their tribe and the Te Ope people through each community’s support of the other, and has also carved “a common ancestress from whom both people could show descent” (153). Inside the door, there is a mattress for Toko to sit on. Since he is unlikely to reach adulthood, he is allowed the privilege of speaking in the meeting house, which is usually reserved for older members of the community. His mattress is positioned beneath the reconstruction of the “loving-man” (154) poupou, whose remains Mary had retrieved from the debris caused by the fire. Toko then tells the story he has learned from Granny Tamihana of the carver who had made this poupou, along with their original meeting house, and left a space underneath it that could not yet be filled because he had had “no children of his own” (155) to carve. This is where Toko sits, “keeping warm the place of the child not by then known” (155).

Finally, Toko recounts an incident that took place one evening when Roimata and he had found Manu sleeping in the new doorway. Talking in his sleep, Manu had told them that there was a fire. Reassuring him that there was no fire, he and Roimata had taken him home.