ESSA MAY RANAPIRI
Hine-nui-te-pō & the Dominant Species
Hine-nui-te-pō lies down next to the carpark
a fantail dancing over her fingers go she says
the cars just sit there for hours on end
doing and saying nothing she watches
as a person approaches listens to the
short chirp of the vehicle unlocked what
bird was caught inside the key
Where will this engine
go and what will it do when it gets there
moving from one place to
the next in the most destructive
way a mammal
grunt in its non-existent throat
These machines look like death to her
and she knows what death looks like.
essa comments: 'The seed of the poem actually comes from a mural in a carpark in Ōtepoti of a dying lady with a pīwakawaka resting on her hand painted by the artist Bezt. It made me think, what would Hine-nui-te-pō see when looking at cars? The dominant species of the title is a reference to a short film called What on Earth! (1966), directed by Les Drew and Kaj Pindal, that posits that cars would be perceived as the dominant species on earth when perceived by aliens, and that their main goal is to eradicate that parasite that is humans. They weren’t speaking directly to the climate catastrophe at the time, but it was striking to me how on the ball they were in ways.'