Huia

Summer 2021

A poem by Bill Manhire.

I was the first of birds to sing
I sang to signal rain
the one I loved was singing
and singing once again

My wings were made of sunlight
my tail was made of frost
my song was now a warning
and now a song of love

I sang upon a postage stamp
I sang upon your coins
but money courted beauty
you could not see the joins

Where are you when you vanish?
Where are you when you’re found?
I’m made of greed and anguish
a feather on the ground

I lived among you once
and now I can’t be found
I’m made of things that vanish
a feather on the ground

Bill Manhire is a prizewinning poet and fiction writer and was Aotearoa New Zealand’s inaugural poet laureate. “Huia” is from his latest book, Wow.

Image: Huia head (Heteralocha acutirostris), John Buchanan, 1865–1885 (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa).

Bill Manhire, Climate change, Environment, Huia

Summer 2021

Charting indigenous futures

How can educators tautoko and empower young people to feel equipped to lead in the changing climate they will inherit? Researchers from the University of Canterbury and Ngāi Tahu have been working with rangatahi Māori and Pasifika in Ōtautahi to explore the ways ākonga view climate change. Ako finds out about the project.

Summer 2021

“We were refugees” Displaced by the cyclone

While many schools and centres were damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle, a few were forced into long-term closure with staff and children having to re-establish elsewhere. Ako talked to kaiako from three different institutions that found new premises, or were taken in by a neighbouring school or centre.

Summer 2021

The power of collective action

During the recent weather events schools have emerged as first responders to crisis in many close-knit communities. Where local authorities failed, groups of educators joined together as hubs of help. Ako spoke with one group of schools in Tāmaki Makaurau about their joint efforts in the face of crisis.

Summer 2021

Surviving Gabrielle

In times of tragedy and crisis, schools are often the glue that holds communities together. At the close of term one 2023, Ako visited one small school in Hawke’s Bay to learn how it became a regional hub after Cyclone Gabrielle.