
Auē Rona, by Reihana Robinson (Steele Roberts, 2012) 68 pp., $25.
Ka nui te pai tēnei pukapuka hou o ngā whiti o Reihana Robinson. Ka nui te pai notemea ko he reo rerekē i roto i ngā whārangi o te whakaputunga. He reo mārohirohi me tino Māori.
Ngā whakamihi nui ki a koe, Reihana.
Reihana Robinson frames this first collection of her distinctive voice around the well-known legend of Rona and the Moon, indeed frames the entire collection so strongly that of the 52 poems here, well over 20 explicitly relate to Rona –who is quintessentially Reihana anyway. She is a poet who has a perspective from above as well as from below. And, of course, Reihana is also a damned good painter, so she sees scenes as well as details from yet another perspective than her intrinsic mana wahine, mana tuahine/tuakana/teina stance as daubed across the pages here. When we add in Noa Noa van Bassewitz’s fine artwork we get a marvellous overall portrait.