The Ocean Remembers (2026)            
8 Pacific Poets
Mila’s Books, 68 pages
ISBN 978-1-06705-002-3 $25 Pb

 

The Ocean Remembers is the book that you put into the hands of teens or young adults who insist that they don’t like poetry.

 Every New Zealander needs to be aware that our country is part of the Pacific, that Auckland is the world’s largest Polynesian city and that over 8% of New Zealanders identify as Pasifika (Pacific islanders). That’s over 400,000 people, the majority of them young; their median age is 24. Publishers such as Mila’s Books do admirable work providing readers, picture books and nonfiction titles that enable young Pasifika readers to recognise themselves in their reading.

 Which brings us to poetry. I was stunned, while reading Mele Nemaia’s recent book about Niue, to find that, although the island’s present population is about 2,000 people, some 35,000 Niueans live in New Zealand. I like to think of some of those 35,000 opening this book to read Henrietta Makatogia’s poem ‘Moui Haaku’ in Niuean on page 14, or in its English translation ‘Daylight Breaks – My Life’ on page 16:

‘Daylight breaks as the beauty of it greets us
The old rooster crows, waking the world around it
Mother wakes us; it is a new day.
Nearby we hear the rustling of the broom brushing, collecting leaves
the smoky vapour of open fires and burning mounds.’

 

The sharp images of this poem are reinforced by the following ‘Poem Background’ in which Henrietta discusses her writing in general and this poem in particular. Unexpectedly forced to move to New Zealand, for health reasons, Henrietta still feels grounded in Niue. Stories told by her elders and the Niuean connection with the land and the sea ‘became the roots of my imagination. Each time I write, I find myself reaching back to Niue, holding on to its lessons and sharing its spirit with the wider world.’

 Every one of the eight poets gets the same handsome treatment. Their poem is provided in both its original Pacific language (Cook Islands Māori, Niue, Sāmoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga) as well as English. Each poem also has its own bilingual ‘Poem Background’ written by its author. (The book’s designer is Liz Tui Morris.)

  Even better, at the back of the book there is a short bilingual biography of each poet, complete with a colour photograph. All too brief, these accounts show the commitment of the poets to their writing and culture. Although each writer is proud of their own society, they also acknowledge other cultures and traditions. The interaction each poet makes with other Pacific cultures, including Aotearoa New Zealand, is also worth noting.

 Here, in The Ocean Remembers, young readers can share the thoughts and reflections of other Pacific Islanders.

They can experience the rueful Solomon Islands memories of Ziu Freshwater, who paddled 20 km in her own canoe to school every week:

 ‘From when I was little
I was afraid of the ocean
The deep blue sea
The coral like sharks.’

 Or they can join SJP Afeaki of Tonga, who worries about how the ocean now threatens ‘the mangroves my grandmothers climbed through to gather mud crabs’. Or they can share the secret, passed on by Danika Thompson of the Cook Islands, that writing poems ‘became a way to give form to what I felt but couldn’t say – a practice that still anchors me now.

  At a time when Creative New Zealand faces financial cuts, it is heartwarming to see their support for getting such a lively and vibrant book published.

 Now, get it into the hands of a teen or young adult.

 

Trevor Agnew
2 Aug 2026  [Review 3856.]

 

This review first appeared in the New Zealand supplement of Magpies Magazine, Sep 2026.