Learning task 1: Potiki
Close reading exercise
Introduce Potiki by Patricia Grace
and ask students to read the text. On completion, focus on the close reading exercise.
Read this extract (re-published with the permission of Penguin NZ
) from the novel Potiki and answer the questions below. The extract is from a chapter titled "Toko" and deals with the proposal from Dollarman to change the area into a tourist area.
It was easy to understand why the suit men were in favour of the development because it would mean large numbers of summer visitors to the area, and that meant 'moving forward' if you could think of it that way. And even when it was not summer there would be good bargains for families and schools going to see the man's head in the mouth of a whale, and porpoises leaping two by two through burning circles and having smiling faces like high-wire-walking people and magic men. Smiling, smiling, but nothing to be known from their eyes.
And there would be profits for businesses, high rents, new transport companies, new eating places, golf and squash and saunas, and everything to interest the golden people.
But there were two different parts. There was one part where we were objectors because we were anxious about the land and sea. The hills and sea did not belong to us but we wished to see them kept clean and free. We could only be objectors along with others who liked to swim and camp and fish, and who did not want the sea or land changed. We, like them, did not want the company to make zoos and circuses in the sea, or to put noise and pollution there, or to line the shore with palaces and castles, and souvenir shops, or to have restaurants rotating above the sea, lit up at night like star crafts landing their invaders on the shore.
Because soon there would be no fish, only pet ones that you went in lit underground tunnels to see at shark-feeding time, or any time you wanted. If you paid.
Well we wanted the fish to be in the sea like ordinary fish, the stingrays to roam in the evenings as they always do. We wanted our eyes to know the place where they would meet the tide whether it was low or high.
My father Hemi said that the land and sea was our whole life, the means by which we survived and stayed together. 'Our whanau is the land and sea. Destroy the land and sea, we destroy ourselves. We might as well crack open our heads, take the seed, and throw it on the flame.'
- What is the main idea that Dollarman and his company representatives are trying to get across to the people of the iwi, and also to those objecting to their developments? Provide a quote from the extract to directly prove your point.
- Why are Hemi and the rest of the iwi so opposed to these developments? Provide an example of the problems these developments cause from later in the novel, and say how they could impact on the iwi. (Do not refer to the deliberate sabotage undertaken by Dollarman and others.)
- Identify the language features used in the following, and explain the intended effect of each:
- moving forward
- Smiling, smiling, but nothing to be known from their eyes.
- And there would be profits for businesses, high rents, new transport companies, new eating places, golf and squash and saunas, and everything to interest the golden people.
- ... to have restaurants rotating above the sea, lit up at night like star crafts landing their invaders on the shore.
- Our whanau is the land and sea.
- We know the extract is told from Toko's point of view, as all of the chapters are either narrated by the person whom the chapter is named after, or is about their actions. What effect does having Toko describe these events have on the reader? How are we supposed to feel, to be thinking? Give a direct quote from the extract to prove your point.
potiki_answers (RTF 7KB)
Analysis and discussion
Ask students to complete the
grid (RTF 16KB)
of the cultural conflicts.
Record in detail the responses of the iwi to the proposals from Dollarman. Why do they refuse to respond in the manner he expects?
Students work in small groups to focus on an individual character, for example Roimata, Dollarman, Hemi in groups. They are then placed in the "hot seat" and required to explain to the class why they have taken the actions they have.
Focus on the setting. Māori and Pakeha have different perceptions as to the value of the land. Explain why, with examples of the importance of the land to each.
