Potiki

Roimata begins Chapter 5 by describing 5-year-old Manu’s fear of school, which leads him to return home early, visibly upset, and have nightmares. He tells Roimata that he is afraid of disappearing into the cracks in the floor, that the other children “fizz like bees” (37) and that he does not enjoy the stories there. Hemi recommends that they teach Manu at home from now on, recognizing that “school’s all right for some, but you don’t always find what’s right for you” (37). Consequently, Manu remains at home with Toko, Mary’s son, to whom he is very attached.

Initially, Roimata envisages setting up a traditional classroom environment for Manu and Toko, like the ones she had become familiar with during her time as a teacher. She eventually remembers, however, that she and Hemi already have everything they need to provide the boys with an education: “We needed just to live our lives, seek out our stories and share them with each other” (38). Roimata shares with the boys stories of her childhood, as well as stories rooted in Maori mythology. James and Tangimoana contribute to the exchange of stories by recounting what they have learned at school: James talks about his Geography and math lessons, and Tangi talks about what she has learned in history and literature, as well as about her classmates and her own family. In addition, Hemi shares his experiences of his work in a factory, Mary shares hers of the poupou she polishes, while Granny Tamihana and the members of the whanau (extended family) tell their stories, too.

Finally, as unemployment becomes an increasing problem, Hemi starts to talk about how the bounty of nature could provide for the family.

This chapter is the first one narrated by Toko. He describes the events of the afternoon of his birth. He knows that Mary is his “borning [sic] mother” (42), and that his “making father” (42) might be an old man who used to visit. However, regardless of his biological parents, he regards Hemi and Roimata as his true parents. He is aware that he narrowly escaped drowning that afternoon and that Tangimoana saved his life. He describes Roimata’s care of him that day, as well as Granny Tamihana’s gifts to him, and the fact that Manu slept by his side. He recounts the attempts of Uncle Stan and others to retrieve his placenta from the sea, which he refers to as his “old shell,” and says that no fishing or swimming or playing in the sea was allowed for a long time following this incident.

Toko claims to have “special knowing” (43), which he thinks may be because of the pendant that Granny Tamihana gave him, as well as “other gifts” that were given to him before birth. This, he believes, compensates for his physical deformities, which he describes as his “crookedness” (43).

In this chapter, Roimata describes the war games that her children and their cousins habitually play on the beach. She notes that, unlike the war games she had played as a child, which were reenactments of wars she and her friends had heard of through the media, or of wars they had seen in movies, she “could not tell what their war games were a reflection of” (44). Instead of using, as she had done, the features of the beach to represent modern or historical weaponry and vehicles, her children simply use the sticks, stones and logs as they are to fight. She also observes that, in her children’s games, there does not appear to be an enemy, “or rather the enemy was not known” (45). Watching the children play, she recalls the mythological war between Tumatauenga, the Maori god of war, and his brothers.

She asks Toko, whom she realizes possesses “a special knowing,” what the children’s wars represent. He informs her that they foretell a real future conflict, in which the children will have to fight an enemy who has stolen something from them. He does not know what exactly will be stolen, but suggests “it might be something like a glowing heart of all special colours [sic] [...]” (46). Feeling afraid, she then asks him whether he can see the future of the kihikihi (her nickname for the children based on their resemblance to cicadas). Toko answers her by describing the life cycle of real kihikihi, which eventually shed their nymphal skins and fly toward the sun, only to be attacked by one of their predators: birds.