Real Fake White Dirt

Bates, Jess Holly. Real Fake White Dirt. Anahera Press, 2014

“Jess Holly Bates has penned an unsettling commentary on the quality of whiteness in New Zealand.” Back cover

“Pakeha identity poetry is a joke a guilty antidote” 2 first lines

“We longed to belong so we borrowed this land - What was yours we now own, and your culture? We’ve canned” 2

“To be of this nation, one must be gung-ho enough, getting amongst the ‘shit’ and ‘shearing’, but this extends only as far as the taste of , the smell of and the sound of whiteness.” 12

Talks about how names get shortened Karangahape road is K road so loses its sense of story 12

“activate the palate to trill the reo on your tongue some people say it is a mouth full of moths a language too soft half dead” 13

“tell me your whakapapapapakeha tell me your wha-wha-wha- what waka your people came on? Give me your tall-taled trawl through Brit-bread histories and white-land insufficiencies” 13-14

This was suggested by a class mate to read and I found it very interesting (well what I could understand). I am not familiar with spoken word especially in written format so had to read it a couple times to fully understand what I was reading. There are a lot of references in it that I don’t understand and I think that is because I wasn’t brought up here so don’t know the people or events she refers too. It is still helpful in the way that it shows that she is also guilty of what it means to be a ‘Pakeha’.