Published on the cusp of the new millennium, Maori poet Robert Sullivan's third book of poems, Star Waka, explores themes of journeying and navigation, moving back and forth in time and focus to confront colonisation, contemporary political issues and personal questions of family and identity. It came with some strings attached: each poem had to feature either a star, a waka (canoe) or the ocean. Within these parameters, and in 2001 lines, Sullivan creates 100 poems that, he says, themselves function like a waka: 'members of the crew change, the rhythm and the view changes – it is subject to the laws of nature'.
"Star Waka is a poetic history of the evolution of the modern New Zealand imagination. It is an impressive achievement."
Ken Arvidson
"A stunning book, full of attitude. . . . If you read only one book of poetry this year, make sure it's this one!"
Bernadette Hall
"This stroppy book, then, is a work of elation, a work to be recited, the continuation of an oral culture invigorated by the written word. It swirls with the cinematic promise of winds, tides, the flight of land-seeking birds, the course of whales and sharks, the patterns of waves and tides. But none of this is just picturesque: it's the struggle of memory against forgetting, Sullivan's people will not forget."
