Tōku Kuia- My Grandmother
by Roimata Prendergast, Sally Ama, and Trina Lealavaa-Ama
Located on the second floor corridor along from the Youth Space and Library.
Speak Out East is a community-driven poetry project reflecting the abundance of cultural diversity in East Auckland, hosted at Botany Town Centre. Arts Out East work alongside local collectives and communities write or chose a poem to reflect their lived experiences, providing insight and drawing connections for our wider communities.
My Grandmother was written by Roimata Prendergast, Sally Ama, and Trina Lealavaa-Ama as a poetic reflection on the strength, sacrifice, and resilience of their grandmothers, who are the roots and backbone of their families.
The group members hail from Samoa, the Cook Islands, and Te Tai Tokerau, as second-generation migrants, and natives, born and raised in Māngere, South Auckland.
Their grandparents made the journey from the islands to Aotearoa, working tirelessly to build a life for them here. This poem honours their legacy, connecting them, their values, and traditions to Papatūānuku, as they weave together memories of family, faith, and cultural survival.
Through vivid imagery and dual-language storytelling, they acknowledge the foundations they built and the sacrifices they made, reminding us to care for the land, our people, and to carry their legacy forward.
English translation of poem:
My Grandmother, Papatūānuku, her perfume dances across the kitchen, Kawakawa is a bitter frequency of the pacific.
The language of Fa’apapa cracks us up, Where my cousins and I finish making their cuppas.
The women in my family, know God like the back of their hands. Cracks of sacrifice where they serve prayer, tucked in pockets of back pews. Counting beads and spilling tea. Stories in cipher cackles from the living room.
I hear her voice sway like the moana. The voice of reason. A gentle breeze against the tide. I know she misses what once was, the memory of dirt in her nails washed out and polished. She does not crack under pressure; where sand meets concrete, coconut meets plastic, tiare meets harakeke.
When my Grandmother arrived, she saw factory walls before she could see the ngāhere. She swept hospital floors before she could sit to rest. A patchwork of colours embedded in a landscape of the past.
The communities we know today are built on the foundations of her struggle.
Manaaki whenua, Manaaki Tangata, haere whakamua. (care for the land, care for the people, move forward).
This project is funded by Arts Out East and Botany Town Centre. Supported by the Howick Local Board and Te Tuhi.