Hiapo 1 / Ko e higoa haaku ko Hiapo

I was born from the hiapo, with bark pale and supple

I was stripped bare, and laid in the salty sea water

Then bundled and taken inland, to the freshwater caves

Rinsed of my salty skin I drew breath

My shape grew as the tutu began to beat

The sound of the ike echoing against the tutua

The women sang to us 'Tutu-hiapo! Tutu-hiapo'

My mother painted me, her hand and mind steady

She adorned me with taro leaves, flowers, vines and

Spirit

She wrote her name on me, and I felt complete

Hiapo 2 / My majesty was displayed and the world took notice

Hiapo 3 / A Palangi man came to me one day, he asked

To take me away

We knew it was time, so I took one last breath

As they folded me up and put me on the Palagi vaka

The darkness was heavy and the journey was quiet

No one spoke to me, I didn't feel like talking

Either

After many days and nights of swaying

I awoke to new sounds, new smells, a new light.

Hiapo 4 / Pale hands touched me and stretched me out.

Pale faces screwed up looking at men, their eyes bulging.

They marveled at me, admired me, said I was rare,

Said I needed to be kept safe.

So the Palagi man put me in a case of glass

My beauty frozen in cold glares.

They said they knew all about me,

And wrote their words beneath my display.

I couldn't understand what they said so I closed

My eyes.

Hiapo 5 / My song was gone, I didn't want to speak any more.

My patterns began to fade, my heart was longing.

They took me down one day, said I didn't look right

I was too quiet, room had to be made.

They folded me up and placed me in a white box.

I cried for me home, for my mother, my people,

I knew I would have to wait.

Hiapo 6 / Much time passed, dust had creviced my body

Hiapo 7 / One day I heard footsteps stop beside me.

I couldn't see the hand that took me from the shelf,

Hiapo 8 / Strange new light peered in

And blue-gloved hands held

me gingerly.

Then I saw another face, not

Pale like the others

but brown and friendly,

familiar, peeping over the pale one.

Hiapo 9 / 'Be very careful' said the

Palagi, but she didn't

know.

The palagi unfolded me

And began to tell the

Brown girl my story.

But she was getting it wrong.

The brown girl said

Something to the Palagi

'I don't know, but I can

Check' said the Palagi as

she left for a moment.

Hiapo 10 / The brown girl slipped off her blue glove

She touched me with her warm brown hand and

Whispered

'Hina-e! Hina-o! Hina' come home hiapo.

Cora-Allan Wickliffe is a multidisciplinary artist of Maori and Niuean descent, originally from Waitakere, Tamaki Makaurau. She was the recipient of the Pacific Heritage Arts Award category in the 2020 Creative NZ Arts Pasifika Awards, for her hiapo art practice.

Jess Pasisi PhD, of Niue, PΓlagi, NgΓti Pikiao, and Tahitian decent, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Te Pua WΓnanga ki te Ao, Faculty of Māori & Indigenous Studies, University of Waikato. Her research field of expertise includes Niue Studies, climate change, and Pacific and Indigenous Studies.