Chapter 6

Moana is clearly very much part of the family. She helps get lunch ready, bosses Mikaere about, and Hemi for that matter, and clearly takes a load off Aroha. She is very deferential to Kuini and seems to have a bond with her. She gets me involved in the lunch preparations in a tactful way. The conversation at lunch is light and inconsequential. Roimata is no longer an interrogator, maybe because she has grilled me enough but I think Moana’s presence also has changed her. Roimata often looks at Moana in awe.

After lunch, Aroha asks me if I would mind moving rooms for that night, so Hemi and Moana can share that bed. I will sleep in Aroha’s office and Aroha will sleep in Hemi’s room. “I wouldn’t impose that room on any visitor.”

I am extremely relieved not to have to sleep in Hemi’s bed, even in his absence. She calls me over to have a quick look. It is the messiest room I have ever seen, dominated by the chassis of the Lambretta. I am able to have a quick confidential word with her. “Believe me, my moment of heterosexual madness is well over. He needs to hang on to that woman.”

“Too right, if he can. She has a unique inner and outer beauty.”

I think I can match Aroha’s high regard for Moana. I will need to say a lot more to Aroha. Moana’s arrival makes me feel even worse, but in a way it clarifies the situation with Hemi.

In the afternoon Hemi and Moana seem to have a long earnest talk in what is now their room. I wonder what that is about. Ngahuia suggests that if I want to work, I can use the sleep-out. I agree partly because there is an article or two I want to read in preparation for my graduate course but mainly because I would like to be out of the way. Roimata decides to join me but is told very firmly by Ngahuia not to bother me. In fact we settle in very comfortably together. I sit on the sofa in the living area with my laptop and Roimata reads on her bed. After a bit, she gets bored and comes through and asks if I would like a hot chocolate. Clearly she would like a hot chocolate. I don’t want to figure out the coffee machine but together we make a hot chocolate for Roimata and a tea for me. As we are drinking, Ngahuia looks in and says she is happy Roimata is looking after me. She makes a cup of tea for herself and, after a few words, goes and has a nap on her bed. Roimata goes back to her bed with her book and I carry on with my reading, without much enthusiasm. As dinner time approaches, we go back to the main house and Moana again plays a leading role in dinner preparation. I am assigned the task of peeling kūmara, which I learn is a sweet potato, small forms of which were brought to New Zealand by the Māori when they migrated from Polynesia. These ones are seriously large, though. While I am not known for my culinary skills, that is a task that I am able to accomplish, though perhaps a little slowly.

The conversation at dinner veers towards Māori issues. Apparently, Kuini is a prominent member of the local Marae. There is a sharp division of view within the marae over whether to support the Māori Party in the general election later in the year. At the heart of the dispute is the way the party is currently supporting the right wing National Party in government. The Labour Party has often had strong support from Māori voters but there had been a falling out over rights to the seabed and foreshore in 2004, which led to the creation of the Māori Party. I don’t have a good grasp of New Zealand politics generally so I lose interest but the notion of an indigenous political party that can have elected members and be influential is very interesting. I think of the surviving remnants of the various Native American tribes in Connecticut and their marginalized status, notwithstanding a rather remunerative casino.

After dinner I am relieved that it is 100% clear that I am sleeping alone. I go to bed early and ponder the events of the day. While I am angry with myself for last night I am also angry with Hemi. What was he thinking? I mustn’t keep thinking about this. I will see what emails I have. Anything interesting? Oh, a couple from former colleagues that will be worth a look.

The next morning after breakfast Kuini, Ngahuia and Roimata go to church. I am asked but decline. I don’t baldly say, “I am an atheist,” but “No, thank you,” seems sufficient. Only those three are going. Hemi and Moana take off to see a cousin of hers, for a little while. Mikaere disappears to the garage, which leaves me with Aroha. I explain how awful I feel knowing Hemi had a steady girlfriend, on top of everything. She suggests that probably Hemi didn’t tell me that, a point I confirmed. She says that she sometimes despairs of him.

Later, in the car journey back to Auckland, I introduce a professional note to my interaction with Aroha. “How can I help you in the Faculty of Arts?”

Aroha says that in fact there is a role she would like to nominate me for: Chair of the Faculty Curriculum Review Committee. It is a hot potato. To have someone coming in from the outside could be an advantage. “Think about it,” she says. I know I should take this on, and it is something I can do, as I do have experience with committee processes. I also know how much work such things can be but I say, “Yes, I’ll do it.” Aroha appears genuinely grateful and squeezes my arm. I feel better and resolve to throw myself into work.

In a spirit of gratitude, I unburden myself and tell her about the incident that prompted me to apply for this job. I tell her about my partner, Maria, and how I encouraged her to study for a degree as a mature student and how later she became a graduate student in gender studies. She was drawn to radical feminist ideas and was, and is, instinctively an activist. A group of which she was a member, including some of my students, had taken it into their heads to confront the patriarchy with direct action and hold the President of the University to ransom until a series of demands had been met. So, they burst into his office, locked the door, removed most of his clothes and tied him to a chair.

Fortunately the President’s PA, whom I knew fairly well, called me immediately. She could have called the police. I was in my office and was able to be there in just a few minutes. I called through the door and they let me in. I persuaded them to untie him and give him his clothes back.

“So you were the hero of the hour?”

“I don’t think that was quite how the President saw it. Even though I knew very well how serious the situation was, when I saw him with his flabby belly hanging over a rather shabby pair of underpants, for a split second the absurdity of the sight took me over and I smiled and stifled a little laugh.”

That probably helped me take control of the situation and restore it to some kind of order, but that wasn’t how the President saw it. He had to acknowledge that I rescued him and later publicly thanked me in a meeting, a little half-heartedly, but after that laugh I knew that my position was going to be difficult. Also, it was widely known that Maria was my partner and some suggested I had put her up to that bit of direct action, which was not true at all.

Aroha starts to chuckle as I tell my story and, at the end, bursts out laughing in a way that I find quite surprising. “You do have a way of getting yourself into tricky situations, don’t you?” she says with a reassuring smile.