His first official publication, Pounamu Pounamu by Witi Ihimaera is a colelction of short stories that serves as both the first glimpse of works to come and the established foundations of Witi’s work. Pounamu Pounamu marks the pledge of a young boy, who from a young age vowed to write stories about Māori that schoolchildren across the motu (country) would have to read.

Pounamu Pounamu is classic Ihimaera. First published in 1972, it was immediately endorsed by Māori and Pākehā alike for its original stories that showed how important Maori identity is for all New Zealanders. As Katherine Mansfield did in her first collection In a German Pension (1911), and Janet Frame in The Lagoon (1951), Witi Ihimaera explores in Pounamu Pounamu what it is like to be a New Zealander – but from a Māori perspective. The seeds of Ihimaera’s later works are first introduced in this ground-breaking collection- The Whale Rider in his story ‘The Whale’, The Rope of Man in ‘Tangi’, and the character of Simeon from Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies in ‘One Summer Morning’; and the themes of aroha (love), whanaungatanga (kinship) and manaakitanga (supporting each other), which are so integral to Ihimaera’s work.

In his introduction, Witi Ihimaera notes the journey of his younger self growing up and how he finally got to the point of writing a story about the world he knew – his Māori life. He describes the people he was surrounded by, the family that shaped him, the figures he would write into his fictional world, and the driving force behind his writing. “the boy fulfilled a childhood vow: to write about Māori using his own self and home place. After all, it was where all his reo, ihi, mana, and wehi came from: there, he was his own king, like Jack with his crown.” This reinforcement of a dream and the impactful prose he has to show for it is not only profound, but inspiration, and makes for a text that is well worth teaching our younger generations.

The short stories cover a range of his novels and provide missing exchanges and character backgrounds for several key figures in his works. What’s more important though is the rich, emotive setting and characters within these stories. compared to the poor representation of Māori in Pākehā stories, Witi Ihimaera shows a world of love and respect. A place of tradition and community and closeness that breeds connections between young and old, as is natural and common across many maraes. it shows Māori not as some vicious, savage beings, but as human beings full of strength and fire and emotion. It is no stretch of the imagination to understand how powerful and significant Pounamu Pounamu would have been at the time of its publication. Pounamu Pounamu marks a point in New Zealand’s history were the narrative shifts into the hands of those who lived it, into the hands of those whose ancestors lived it, and into the hands of those best equipped to tell the stories.

Pounamu Pounamu is full of poetic prose, gripping scenes, and characters who fill the whole space, even the whole short story. There is no doubting Witi Ihimaera knows how to write, and I implore you all to pick up Pounamu Pounamu if you have not done so already. It is a feat of Māori short story writing, a feat of Māori literature, and a pioneering text for Māori stories and written storytelling. If you have read and liked Pounamu Pounamu, then I highly encourage you to pick up Pātea Boys by Airana Ngawera for more Māori short stories.