Visual artist and new author Terri Te Tau at the launch of her debut novel The Valley of Unlikely Acquaintances, at Unity Books in Wellington earlier this month. (Photo: Kristine Zipfel)

Terri Te Tau’s debut novel, The Valley of Unlikely Acquaintances*, is set around a whānau-led research centre that drives reforestation efforts on its lands. In this extract, a community hui has been called to discuss a tūpāpaku found in a cave in the forest, and scientist Lydia is reluctantly in the spotlight.*

The task of addressing the hapū later that week had somehow fallen to Lydia, and she found herself standing in front of the large wheel-mounted TV screen looking out over a wharekai full to the brim.

She had the TV remote in her hand but needed to find the one for the air conditioning — it was way too hot. Pūrua was sitting with Mele Williams, the forensic pathologist from Christchurch, an old uni friend of Tīria’s. Mele was laughing at something he just said. Good to see he was funny in uniform.

Lydia really wanted to ask Awanui to lead this, but she was trying to get on his good side, and asking him to run a community meeting wasn’t the way to the man’s heart.

Koro Rāwiri wasn’t an option, either, because they’d end up being here till next Tuesday. Since she’d been made the reluctant acting director of the Kōpuaranga Research Centre, it was kind of her responsibility. Definitely not something she had envisioned for herself at the ripe old age of 29.

The windows vibrated from the excited chatter, and big drips of condensation shook loose. She grabbed a whiteboard marker and used it to rap loudly on the edge of the table. The room quietened down in stages, rippling out from those closest to her.

“Tēnā tātou, thank you all for coming. Koro Rāwiri, māu e tīmata tō tātou hui?” [Uncle Rāwiri, will you start the meeting?]

“Ka pai, Lydia. Me inoi tātou [Let us pray].”

The sea of heads bowed and voices followed his words, some loud, some whispering, some slightly ahead, and some slightly behind. When the karakia finished, the heads all looked up at her in unison.

Lydia hated being in the path of all those expectant eyes and ears. She silently cursed Tīria for the hundredth time that week. After her meeting in Wellington, Tīria had gone straight over to a genetics conference in Fiji. She said it was to pull funding, but Lydia knew it was really to pull hot scientists.

She cleared her throat and acknowledged them again for coming along. She was about to introduce the forensic pathologist when a figure stood up. It was Whaea Lili, Awanui’s aunty.

“E rere ana ngā whakamānawa ki te Runga Rawa, nāna ngā mea katoa i hanga, tēnā tātou katoa. I’m just wondering, can you tell us about the anomaly that we’ve been hearing about? We’re all dying to know, my dear.”

Lydia was amazed that Lili could say all that in one breath. “We’ll take questions at the end, Whaea.”

“But we all just want to know what’s going on, dear,” another voice croaked out.

“This,” Lydia said loudly, “is Mele Williams. She’s a forensic pathologist from Ōtautahi. She’s going to fill you in on all the details we know so far.”

Lydia stepped as far to the side as she could manage and sat next to Pūrua where she could easily reach for his taser if anyone gave her any grief. Not that he would ever carry one.

“Tālofa lava, mālō le soifua, tēnā koutou katoa.”

Nods and grunts of approval reverberated around the room as Mele told them all where she was from. Her oversized hounds-tooth blazer and necklace made from fluorescent floppy disks had everyone transfixed.

“The fuck is that around her neck?” Lydia heard her cousin whisper.

“It’s art,” the person sitting next to her whispered back. Lydia cringed and hoped that Mele didn’t hear.

“I know,” Mele began, “that this can make a lot of people feel uncomfortable — it feels tapu to some — even discussing it here now.”

There were more nods and calls of “kia ora, kia ora,” and someone shouted, “Yous have no right to go in there!”

Lydia glanced at Mele, but her chin was up and she seemed unfazed, like she was about to give a presentation on the health benefits of indoor plants.

“The majority of the time,” Mele continued, “when a tipuna is found in these circumstances, we let them rest, and seal off the area so that no one else can disturb them.”

She paused, and Lydia could feel the anticipation in every foot shuffle, cough, and crossing and uncrossing of arms.

“As you may have heard, however . . . ” Mele paused again, taking time to look at the various expectant faces. Shit, she was good at this. Lydia hoped that she’d be able to stick around for the whole investigation.

“While examining the tūpāpaku, we’ve found something that required us to take a closer look. We sought permission from yourselves, the mana whenua, and carried out some tests, which gave us basic information about age and how long the tūpāpaku has been in the cave. We temporarily relocated the tūpāpaku to one of the labs at the facility so we could carry out the testing under appropriate conditions.”

Mele had complete command of the room, and even Lydia was holding her breath despite knowing what she was about to say.

“We’ve determined that she was female and around 75 years old at the time of death. We think she has been in the cave for roughly 150 years or so . . . which brings us to the critical thing we need to share with you all tonight. We’ve found an anomaly that requires further testing, and we’d like your permission.”

Mele looked expectantly over at Lydia.

“Right . . . aroha mai.” She fumbled for the remote to the TV and flicked it on, trying not to accidentally select a picture of the tūpāpaku from the tiny icons. Why didn’t she have this ready?

She found the right picture and selected it. An image of a dental X-ray appeared on the screen, a close-up of a molar.

Mele pointed to the picture. “This is an X-ray of one of her teeth. It contains a composite filling that didn’t exist 150 years ago.”

A wave of chatter filled the room, and there was no hope in hell of holding question time back now. They rolled in thick and fast. It was going to be a very long evening.

Extracted from The Valley of Unlikely Acquaintances by Terri Te Tau, Spoor Books, $38.

See also Atakohu Middleton’s interview with Terri Te Tau here.

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