Whaea Blue

Polly and Wiki, alongside all the other kuia, ride atop Kerry's aged Toyota Corona, with its navy blistered bonnet conspicuously leading the way. These matriarchs travel for all the moko, omnipresent and woven into the fabric of existence, ensuring only a few slip through their intricate net. As Talia Marshall’s narrative unspools, time and whakapapa (genealogy) intertwine, taking readers on a poignant journey across Aotearoa in an array of decrepit European cars. Along this voyage, Marshall encounters her father, picks up a specter, metamorphoses into a wharenui (Māori meeting house), and savours cocktail hour with renowned photographer Ans Westra.

Intertwined with personal relationships, the narrative sees men like Roman, Ben, and Isaac enter and exit her life, while others, particularly significant male figures—her father Paul, grandfathers Mugwi Macdonald and Jim, her ancestor Nicola Sciascia, tohunga Kipa Hemi Whiro, and even the legendary explorer Kupe—leave indelible impressions as she oscillates between the past and future. With her ancestor Tutepourangi, she relives the violent past of Te Rauparaha and struggles, yet fails, to pen her magnum opus historical novel.

Despite the tumultuous landscape she traverses, it is the wahine (women), past and present, who uphold her, even as the realm of her past smoulders. Whaea Blue is tempestuous and evocative, paying homage to shared memories, the fluidity of self-identity, and the women whose essence we carry within us through generations. It is a kāranga (call) that resonates from the depths of despair to the zenith of peace.

'This is a wild road trip, frightening and funny. You can taste all the food, see all the ghosts, hear the ancestors. It's a masterclass in honesty. It’s one for the wahine. Through Marshall's extraordinary storytelling I saw and laughed with the people she loves, and cried for those she wished had stayed.' – Becky Manawatu

'Whaea Blue is a fiercely original memoir with a fresh Māori perspective, scanning the record of inter-iwi hatreds, curses, war, and colonial aftershocks. In the process, she crafts a complex personal relationship to Māori identity. No one is spared in this droll, lyrical memoir, least of all the author herself. Marshall dives fearlessly into the darkest topics—pain, loss, abandonment, violence, death, madness, and war—and emerges with a testament you won't forget.' – John Dolan

'Marshall's whirlwind prose effortlessly slams the reader with neck-snapping speed from laughter to sorrow, recognition to disbelief, and then back again. An uncommonly good debut by an author who is as original as she is undeniable.' – Victor Rodger

Talia Marshall (Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Takihiku) is a Dunedin-based writer whose work has graced the pages of Poetry magazine, Landfall, Sport, North & South, Mana, Canvas, The Spinoff, Newsroom, and Pantograph Punch, among others. In 2020, she was appointed the inaugural Emerging Māori Writer in Residence at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington, and in 2021 she earned the prestigious Newsroom Surrey Hotel Writers Residency.