He Heru. Ein Kamm. Ein Schmuckstück für den heiligsten Teil des Körpers

In the organizer's words:

From a seemingly simple comb, Whiti Hereaka creates a mirror work of awe and beauty. A text in nine sections. "One part for each tooth and one part for each gap between them". The parts tell of love, loss and longing. They tell stories of whales whose bones were used to make objects. Telling stories of a carver making a comb. Telling stories of Māori gods and the power of women. Telling of colonial whalers who fished their prey to near extinction in the South Pacific. Telling of a writer who cuts her hair and moves across worlds to weave connections.

Whiti Hereaka is an award-winning novelist and playwright. She is descended from the Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa, Tūhourangi, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Tumatawera, Tainui and Pākehā and lives in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. In her new text for the Humboldt Forum, she unfolds an intriguing cosmology around the heru, combing through time and space with it to create "stories of ocean blue, blood red, bone white", breaking the silence left by the museum's description of "access unclarӓrt".

The event starts at 18:30 with a short tour to room 218 to see the Heru (comb) in the original. The meeting point is the Mechanical Arena in the foyer. The reading with Whiti Hereaka will begin there at around 19:00.

After the event, Whiti Hereaka's books will be on sale. They will be signed by the author.

Further information about the Heru (comb) can be found here on Sammlung Online.

Whiti Hereaka is a novelist and playwright of Māori and Pākehā descent. Her iwi affiliations are Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa, Ngāti Whakaue, Tuhourangi, Ngāti Tumatawera, Tainui. She is the author of four novels: The Graphologist's Apprentice, Bugs, Legacy and Kurangaituku. Legacy won the 2019 New Zealand Children's and Young Adult Book Award for Young People's Literature and Kurangaituku received the 2022 Jann Medlicott Acorn Award for Fiction. It was also longlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award. Whiti is co-editor, with Witi Ihimaera, of an anthology of Māori myths - Pūrākau - which was published in 2019. Her short stories have been published in Room to Write, A Kind of Shelter - Whakaruru-taha, Te Awa o Kupu and Hiwa, Contemporary Māori Short Stories.

Her latest work, You Are Here, a collaboration with artist Peata Larkin, will be published by Massey University Press in March 2025 as part of the Kōrero series.

Priya Basil is author and curator of the Humboldt Forum series Objects Contradict. In her book Be My Guest/Hospitality (2019), she combines memoir, philosophy, food and politics to reflect on hospitality in the broadest sense. Her most recent book Im Wir und Jetzt: Feministin Werden (2021) combines politics with the personal, as does her film essay on memory culture and belonging, Eingeschlossen / Ausgeschlossen (2020), which can be viewed online. She is a co-founder and board member of WIR MACHEN DAS, an NGO that works with refugees and migrants for a more inclusive society. Priya is also a member of the advisory board of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. She has conceived and curated projects for various institutions, including the Goethe Institute and the Berlin International Literature Festival. From 2021 to 2023, Priya was International Writer in Residence for Mindscapes, a Wellcome Trust UK project that aims to change the way we understand, talk about and treat psycho-social health. As part of this project, Priya undertook a multi-year research journey across six continents to learn about different understandings of wellbeing and healing practices. In 2024, Priya is Writer in Residence on Wellcome's next project, Climate and Health. She is currently working on a new book based on her research and travels.

- 8 EUR, reduced 4 EUR

- Please book your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the foyer.

- English with translation into German

- Duration: 150 min

- Mechanical arena in the foyer

- Part of: Objects contradict