Statue inside the National War MemorialLast week saw the launch of Pukeahu: an Explorato­ry Anthol­o­gy, an online col­lec­tion of writ­ing and pho­tog­ra­phy explor­ing Pukeahu/Mt Cook from his­tor­i­cal, cul­tur­al, geo­graph­ic and imag­i­na­tive per­spec­tives. Col­lat­ed and pub­lished by staff and stu­dents of Massey Uni­ver­si­ty, it explores a part of Welling­ton that’s seen more than its share of anguish, con­flict and grandeur.

It fea­tures work from Kather­ine Mans­field, Bill Man­hire, Witi Ihi­maera, Lau­rence Aber­hart, Ali­son Wong, Hinemoana Bak­er, and many oth­er names both famil­iar and new. It even includes an excerpt from my Notion­al Sig­nif­i­cance series, from where the State High­way slices across the flank of this much-dam­aged hill. Tales of dis­lo­ca­tion min­gle with mus­ings on domes­tic­i­ty; ter­ri­fy­ing stuffed more­porks mix with visions of buried streams; tram crash­es and hate crimes give way to dawn bless­ings and bells of peace.