Oh Numi Tutelar
(At the British Museum, London, 25 June 1998)
3 in the morning
The streets deserted I had forgotten
only derelicts & prostitutes are abroad in the night
forsaken lovers locked out
(and Maori attending dawn ceremonies)
Make way, Britannia, Albion, Victoria Imperatrix,
make way our putatara are braying to bring down
your walls The dawn is coming and with it
Magi, gift bearers from the South
Piki mai, kake mai, homai te wai ora
ki ahau
We have come
from the utmost ends of the earth a tribe of travellers
with our own Queen, ministers & warrior escort
to the land of our Treaty partner where
our treasures have been plundered
(and Roma & I halfway round the world
to read in a stairwell)
Make way, O Egypt, ancient Assyria, Greece, Rome
make way our own Cleopatra comes amid you
Semiramis, Te Arikinui, Imperatrix of Aotearoa
Maori women, gift bearers from the South
Haramai te toki, hui e, haumi e, taiki e
So here we are
climbing upward the Museum opening unwilling
to the dawn, the kai karanga calling, the warriors
pulling us in & Maramena asks, ìHow can our
culture so small survive in this treasure house
of many cultures?î
(The answer is simple: Godzilla was wrong
size does not matter)
Oh antiquities of Asia, make way, lions of Judah
bow down, Babylon, stela of Islam make way
give space, Oh Nimrod, Horus, Mahomet
we are iwi Maori, gift bearers from the South
E taonga tū mai, tū mai, tū mai
And in the great hall
for the first time we see the past before us
the treasures of our ancestors a Pharaonic ransom
of immense psychic power, indeed we live
with our past the ghosts among us
(How can I explain? We have always walked
backwards into our future)
Oh, ancestors, stand forever! Stand for yesterday!
Stand for today! Stand for tomorrow! Stand
for always! Stand! Stand! Stand!
Take heed, O Gods of all other worlds, numi tutelar
We come chanting, we come singing, we come
proudly from Rangiātea, there our seed was sown
We come, still voyaging by star canoes
by aurora australis
We are from savage islands, far to the south
we move through your constellations
make way and where there is one
oh Gods, there are a thousand
We are Magi, bearing gifts
and our dawn is coming
Ka Ao, ka Ao, ka awatea
~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 2.22.11. First published in Whetu Moana (An Ocean of Stars) – Contemporary Polynesian Poetry in English. Auckland University Press, April 2003, editors Albert Wendt (editor), Reina Whaitiri (editor) and Robert Sullivan (editor). Keisha Castle Hughes appears courtesy of the Whalerider film, via Celebrity Wonder~
