Sedition — a letter to the writer from Meri Mangakāhia

Here’s what I had in mind, kōtiro, this clipping at words like overgrown maikuku — return the blankets of domestic life; don’t fold washing or wear shoes, polish these rerenga kē. Eh. But this world. I s’pose neither of us planned to be in politics, never did do what others told us to — wahanui though, go on, get your sedition on girl, your agitator, your defiant speak to each other eye to eye — Māori been jailed for nouns, phrases; butcher up a clause, get buried in Pākehā kupu, then dig that out like the old people. No one approved of their language either.