Hey Heru. A comb

“Access unexplained.” This museum description of the traditional Māori ornamental ridge leaves silence behind. A piece of jewelry with five teeth, one of them broken off. It looks almost unfinished. The award-winning novelist and playwright Whiti Hereaka decorates it piece by piece with stories and thus breaks the silence. Her “Stories of Ocean Blue, Blood Red, Bone White” form a complex work that reflects awe and beauty. In nine sections, “one part for each tooth and one part for every gap between them,” she talks about love, loss and longing. It talks about the whales whose bones were used to make objects and about a carver who makes a comb. It tells of Māori goddesses, the power of women, but also of colonial whalers who fished their prey almost to extinction in the South Pacific.

With “He Heru. A comb.” invites Whiti Hereaka to explore the cosmos she creates, in which she combs through time and space and is guided by the question “Do we invent stories or do stories invent ourselves? ”

The event includes a reading by Whiti Hereaka, a conversation with curator Priya Basil, questions from the audience, and a book signing session.