the palagi boy brings haggis
the fijian boy says he’ll bring kokoda, and marama’s tama, paua fritters. her daughter says
she’ll bring panikeke, and her toko will bring ‘otai.
the palagi boy says he’ll bring himself
and everyone laughs
her daughter says, but isn’t it meant to be a night repping all our cultures? chat, palagi people come from somewhere too, right?
seated in a circle, the rangatahi look at him. the palagi boy says slowly,
well my granny comes from scotland
good, her daughter says, find out what they eat.
the circle breaks up and her daughter spots her at the door, smiles. she returns the smile, feels less uber-like.
*
no one’s tasted haggis before so everyone’s crowding around the tartan-covered table in their respective cultural dress, including mātua. a constellation of colour, music, and kai permeates an otherwise lifeless classroom. the haggis itself is a deeper brown than she expects, dense but crumbly, like nutty fruit mince. she’s pleased to see it fills a loaf tin versus a sheep’s stomach.
the father of the palagi boy has helped him cook the haggis, and as he watches his son dish spoonfuls onto outstretched plates he explains it’s a famous scottish dish, that robert burns even wrote a poem about it, but it harks back to before burns. william wallace probably ate it after his battles with the english
who’s william wallace? one of the rangatahi ask
the palagi boy, wearing an earthy green and sea blue kilt announces,
sir william wallace was a scottish knight and leader in the struggle for scottish independence
of course she knows this also.
william is the man she visualises in her veins
because she never knew her maternal grandfather.
he retreated back to scotland apparently
when the pregnancy was discovered.
she had watched the movie braveheart
hoping to see another side to him, to her.
and mel gibson delivered.
she goes back for seconds.
the little white plate is paper thin but the haggis and panikeke are touching.
Glossary:
kokoda—raw fish (fijian version)
panikeke—banana pancakes (samoan)
toko—friend (tongan)
‘otai—refreshing coconut drink (tongan)
palagi—pākehā (samoan)
mātua—parents (samoan)
Lisa Stanley (samoan/pākehā) is an emerging writer based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her work is published in a fine line, Flash Frontier, Turbine | Kapohau, Yellow Lamp Poetry, Landfall Tauraka, Moonflake Press and more.