Bulibasha

Author Note

This novel is dedicated to my father, Te Haa Ihimaera Smiler Jnr, my grandfather Pera Punahamoa Ihimaera Smiler and the great Smiler family of whom I am a member. It is also written in memory of my fabulous grandaunt, Mini Tupara, Uncle George Tupara and the Tupara family.

Bulibasha is a work of fiction. Although Waituhi is a real village, Hukareka is not. For geographical purposes Hukareka has been situated somewhere between Manutuke and Bartletts. The Golden Fleece championships is modelled on the Golden Shears competition.

The novel was written when I was the Katherine Mansfield Fellow, Menton, France. My thanks are due to the Katherine Mansfield Trust, the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand, Mrs Marguerite Lilley, and Professor Albert Wendt and the University of Auckland for leave from the English Department.

From the bottom of my heart I thank William Rubinstein, trustee for the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship in France and secretary of the New Zealand France Association, Nice, and his wife Nelly. Thanks also to the New Zealand France Association, Monsieur Frederic Billy and the Maire of Menton, my French teacher Monsieur Alain Roman, Jean and Olga Franc de Ferriere, Jacqueline Bardolph and Jean, William Waterfield and Angelique, Annabelle White, Gordon Stewart, Maarire, Terry, David and Guillaume for their support — and to Jane, and Jessica Kiri and Olivia Ata, the best daughters in the world.

There was no better place to write Bulibasha than in the south of France, close to Italy, where verismo — temperament, passion, pain and laughter — is so much akin to the Waituhi Valley’s own passionate involvement in life, death and history. I pay tribute to the sun, mountains and peoples bordering the great Mediterranean Sea.