What I’m Reading Dr Rachel Buchanan

The Ani Waaka Room (Te Ta¯kupu, Te Wa¯nanga o Raukura ), the debut collection of poems by Debbie Broughton, is a must-read for everyone who lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellingon) and wants to understand a bit more about what it’s like to be mana whenua in the capital.

Like me, Debbie is an uri of Te Aro Pa¯, which was once a thriving community around what is now Taranaki St. Debbie’s poems are witty, brave, cutting and extremely funny. Start with Why I can’t call myself a Wellingtonian anymore, then try But for Nga¯ Rangahautira and Ma¯ori lecturers.

Read Debbie’s poems alongside Alice Te Punga Somerville’s new collection Always Italicise (AUP) and soak up equally challenging and incisive Taranaki perspectives on language, academia, motherhood and more. I recommend starting with Sphere and then consider An Indigenous woman scholar’s prayer.

Staying with the poetry vibe, I enjoyed Pa¯keha¯ poet Kate Camp’s new memoir, I Bet You Think This Song Is About You (Te Herenga Waka University Press). Kate uses a downbeat, often laconic style to reconstruct some pretty shocking episodes from her younger days. Anyone who once enjoyed smoking cigarettes (that would be me) will appreciate Kate’s loving descriptions of its many rituals.

Elizabeth Strout’s new novel, Lucy By the Sea (Random House, 2022) and Peggy Frew’s Wildflowers (Allen & Unwin) are engrossing portraits of two white middle-class families in America and Australia. The first centres on the pandemic, the second is about sisterhood and the impact of drug addiction.