Potiki

The book begins with the history of a Māori carver who spends his life calling forth the figures hidden within the pieces of wood that come under his hands. Like any good carver, he is a master of his skills but not the master of the wood itself, which cooperates with him in bringing forth figures of the ancestors so that his people can know their place in the world. The carver is human, subject to the same joys and cares and flaws as any other human being, only this one is a pretty good man.

The carver was the only child of his parents, who were overprotective because he was sickly. Shortly before their deaths, they apprentice him to a master, and the boy sits at the master’s elbow, observing, for four long years. Then the master hands him a mallet, and the carver sheds the invalid’s scarves in which his parents wrapped him. And in time, he becomes a master, too.

The carver serves his people for many years. Late in his life, he begins the panels for the wharenui, the community’s shared house. He carves the poupou, panels that show their place in the world and tell their story, according to their desires, but they give him free rein to design the last one as he wishes. And although the carver’s master had taught him that tradition forbids carving a figure from living memory, that’s what he felt called to do.

The carver’s last poupou represents himself. It has a wide head to represent his knowledge and the long, swirling tongue of a storyteller. It holds a mallet and chisel, and the chisel melds into the figure’s penis, which the carver shapes to look like a miniature version of the figure itself. It is incomplete, with an empty space for a successor to fill in when the time comes. The carver dies the very night he completes his work.