Huia Short Stories 10 Read Online Free PDF Page A

name of his tupuna. They said they wanted him to have the strength of carrying the name that would connect him to the river. The old man consented. And so the child was known as Awa. But his parents found the weight of his name was too much for them to bear, and Awa was sent to live with his nana.
    Awa did what boys and young men do. He played and he grew, he loved and he caused pain. He made wrong choices and he had good friends and he experienced loss. He worked and he fathered. And he loved the awa, and forgot to mistrust it. He should have known better.
    From his carved stone Te Awatere ki te Pae Tawhiti can see Awa now, walking towards him, his nana by his side. She has lived a good, full life, raised him well, and it is right for her to be here to welcome him home. Behind him are those who came before him: the beautiful girl whose heart he broke, the best friend who died too young, some aunties and an uncle, the mokos who each lived only a few hours. Behind them are still others. They have prepared and waited to receive him. They are here to witness him give an accounting of his name.
    â€˜Tēnā koe e Te Awatere ki te Pae Tawhiti,’ the old man says.
    â€˜Tēnā koe, e Koro,’ says Awa.
    They hongi.
    â€˜Haere mai. E noho ki tāku taha.’
    He nods to the stone beside his.

Sam
    Kirsty Dunn
    Today for class we done family trees and I was let go first from the mat coz I sat up the straightest and breathed in the hardest and made myself real tall so I got to choose where to sit so I sat at the back table closest to the art sink coz that’s where all the best colour pencils are. Miss Davis had already put out all the bits of cartridge for us to start doing our drawing straight away so I got a pencil and started planning out my tree. Miss Davis says you should always do the first bit in pencil and do a plan, coz if you make a mistake it’s easy to just rub it out – not cheat and get the pens and colour pencils and then do it wrong – specially if you spell something wrong it makes your whole picture look stink and you can’t start again coz you only get one good bit of cartridge coz the school isn’t made of money. I got a pencil and started drawing my family tree on it, not pressing too hard so I could rub it out easy if I made a mistake, and everyone else was making a big noise in the class, running to the seats they wanted even though it’s against the class rules to run. We made those rules up by ourself at the start of the year, we sat on the mat and put up our hands and said what we can’t do and what you shouldn’t do in class or in the playground like no put-downs which means no being mean and no being rude to other people and also no melting crayons on the heaters coz it’s hard to get them off. I got my pencil and one of the good rubbers – not one that’s got big holes poked in or chunks off it a nice whole one with not much marks – and put it under my leg on my seat coz if you don’t save the good rubbers someone else will get it and not share, even though sharing is in the rules as well. Miss Davis clapped her hands like she does when she wants us to be quiet, she goes clap … clap … clap clap clap, and then you have to put your things down and stop talking and clap that same thing back to her or otherwise you look dumb coz it means you aren’t watching or you’re still talking and everyone else has stopped and done the clap back. So I did the clap back with my pencil in my hand even though you’re not supposed to but I did anyway coz if you put your pencil down someone else might take it and mine was just a good sharpness and orange on the outside which is my favourite. Miss Davis said OK class you need to quiet down now please you all know what you need to do so there should be only quiet working talk and then everyone started whispering to each other even though they didn’t even need to be saying