Tauhou
Ratings3
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings3
Average rating4.3
Dear grandmother, I am writing this song, over and over again, for you. I am a stranger in this place, he tauhou ahau, reintroducing myself to your land.
Tauhou is an inventive exploration of Indigenous families, womanhood, and alternate post-colonial realities by Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall, a writer of Māori and Coast Salish descent. This innovative hybrid novel envisions a shared past between two Indigenous cultures, set on reimagined versions of Vancouver Island and Aotearoa New Zealand that sit side by side in the ocean.
Each chapter is a fable, an autobiographical memory, a poem. A monster guards cultural objects in a museum, a woman uncovers her own grave, another woman remembers her estranged father. On rainforest beaches and grassy dunes, sisters and cousins contend with the ghosts of the past ― all the way back to when the first foreign ships arrived on their shores.
In a testament to the resilience of Indigenous women, the two sides of this family, Coast Salish and Māori, must work together in understanding and forgiveness to heal that which has been forced upon them by colonialism. Tauhou is an ardent search for answers, for ways to live with truth. It is a longing for home, to return to the land and sea.
Reviews with the most likes.
There is an author's note at the end of the book that I feel might benefit readers more if they read it before beginning the book.
That said, even after reading it, I still feel a bit lost.
I don't have enough evidence to make this a supportable thesis but a good part of the fiction, even the non-fiction, I've encountered by indigenous authors - how frequently fragmentation seems to be part of the formatting - I wonder whether it's a broader statement about what is lost and what is being reclaimed. How trauma affects memory and expression.
Even feeling certain that I have not connected to this book as well as others may be able to, I think it's worth reading. The writing certainly efficiently establishes tone, evokes feeling, creates ambience.
Taniwha working at the museum and the Transformer section which featured the conversation with the flicker bird were my favourite parts.
The book comes with a content warning, but to expand on that:
⚠️self-harm, body image issues, disordered eating, internalized fatphobia, anxiety/mental health concerns, SA, child abuse, domestic abuse, discussion of residential schools
