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Joe-billy is a White man who likes to spend summers camping on the beach near the Tamihana land. He is friendly with the clan and is especially kind to the children. Mary gives him his name in honor of the billy-can he uses to boil and drink his tea. When Mary gives birth to Toko, the family suspects that Joe-billy, who has always been kind (they thought) to Mary, is his father. He dies in an accident before the family can confront him, however.
Joe-billy (Joseph Williams) Quotes in Potiki
The Potiki quotes below are all either spoken by Joe-billy (Joseph Williams) or refer to Joe-billy (Joseph Williams) . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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27. James Quotes
The young man said to his people, “There’s a story that says that the finishing of this poupou—this last for the old house, first for the new—goes into the future. That the completion will be done once it is known who the lower figure should be. I know now who must go there. I know now who it is that has been fathered by one who, in his own time, had no children of his own. I can do it now. But you might want me to wait until I’m older. You could think that this should be done by an older man.”
“We want you to complete it now,” they said. […]
When the blessings had been done the young man put mattresses down in the meeting-house for himself, his brother and his aunt, and took up his tools.
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Joe-billy (Joseph Williams) Character Timeline in Potiki
The timeline below shows where the character Joe-billy (Joseph Williams) appears in Potiki. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
2. Mary
...and treasures as she goes, stowing each in her bucket, and she says hello to Joe-billy, a White man who frequently camps on the beach during the summers. On the way,...
(full context)
4. Roimata
...the placenta so that they can bury it according to custom. The family immediately suspects Joe-billy, whom they’d all previously considered a kind and friendly old man, of raping Mary. When...
(full context)
10. Hemi
...he spent the first weeks of his life in an incubator at the hospital. Someone—probably Joe-billy but the family will never know for sure because he died before they could confront...
(full context)
