Highlight on: Kurangaituku

A huge congratulations to Whiti Hereaka for winning the Jan Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2022 Ockham NZ Book Awards!

“Ten years ago, Whiti Hereaka decided to begin the task of rescuing Kurangaituku, the birdwoman ogress from the Māori myth, Hatupatu and the Bird-Woman. In this extraordinary and richly imagined novel, Hereaka gives voice and form to Kurangaituku, allowing her to tell us not only her side of the story but also everything she knows about the newly made Māori world and after-life. Told in a way that embraces Māori oral traditions, Kurangaituku is poetic, intense, clever, and sexy as hell” - The Ockham Judges

Find out below what we thought of this award winning book.

Olivia’s thoughts: I found Kurangaituku a challenging read - in a good way. The structure, pacing, rhythm and tone is unlike anything I have come across before. I was forced from the opening page to slow down, absorb, consider, and open myself up to impossibilities. In a fast-paced frenetic life, this isn’t easy to do, but it has changed my view of reading and, in the wonderful way life imitates art, has made me reconsider the role a reader plays in the storytelling process.

Whiti Hereaka has written a remarkable re-telling of a Maori myth about Kurangaituku (the bird-woman) and Hatupatu, the man who betrays her. It is deliberately non-linear, with three strands to be read in whichever order the reader chooses. One strand emerges as if from the darkness and grows bigger, brighter, and more powerful, just as Kurangaituku does. Another sinks to the depths of the underworld. The third takes a traditional path. The rhythm of the prose mirrors the story - gathering in momentum, dipping and diving - at times loud and shocking, at others quiet and melancholic. There is beauty, but more often, there is pain and death.

For me, the novel is about finding our voice, or in the case of Kurangaituku who had no voice, finding a way to be heard and, more importantly, understood. Often our perception of a person - a person we may never meet face to face - is built around the way other people talk about them. By existing through other people’s voices, that person’s story grows. So is the case for Kurangaituku.

As Whiti Hereaka says so beautifully: “Someone, somewhere, tells a story about you. In that act of storytelling, that person is not just talking about you but has actually created a you that exists in their story. You exist in this plane and in the world created by story. Both instances are you and exist independently, and more importantly, dependently.”

Rachel’s review: Can I just say that I found it super difficult to write a review for this book? It’s like nothing else I’ve ever read and for that I’m at a loss for words.

I’d like to start by saying that I’m a sucker for a pretty book. I know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover but with a work of art like this how can you not??? I bow down to Huia Publishing for producing these gorgeous covers. They’re not just for show either, each side represents the story inside and I have to say that that was my favourite part of this book. It is a unique reading experience. You can start with either story, the choice is up to you. I started with the light side ‘ Te Kore’ which I interpreted as Kurangaituku’s creation, then I read the dark side ‘Te Pō’ which is her journey in Rarohenga - the Māori underworld. Finishing off with the story in the middle which is Whiti’s re-telling of the ‘Hatupatu and the Bird Woman’.

This was my first introduction to the bird-woman myth. I don’t know the story of Hatupatu and I’ve never heard any versions of the myth so I went into this totally blind and I’d like to reassure you that that’s okay! You don’t need to be familiar with the characters at all, actually I’d recommend you go in forgetting what you’ve heard about Hatupatu and the traditional ‘monster’ bird-woman and start reading with fresh eyes.

I’d also like to point out that I know absolutely no Te Reo Māori but I truly enjoyed how the language is blended into the story - it creates a fascinating rhythm and lyricism. I did look up the occasional word but you can easily understand by context alone.

This is a book that I can imagine my English lecturers at university would absolutely froth over. From its non-linear structure to its sweeping prose you could study it for hours and still find more to talk about.