If I knew where the good songs come from, I’d go there more often.

– Leonard Cohen

 

I was tweeting about how there has been a change of stand for the New Zealand Society of Authors at the Frankfurt Book Fair to allow better access for New Zealand authors and now I have a German airline following my tweets!
   I know I said I was going to write more about 9/11 but today I want to tell you about something more inspiring. It is an initiative from Marlborough school students.  In 2010 Springlands School had the idea of creating a Taylor River Writers' Walk.  So far there are three poems engraved on granite plaques set on huge rocks along the riverbank.  The idea of the project was part of the school’s environmental education programme.  Students wanted to remind people to look after the river as it is special. Other schools plan to be involved in future.
    A third poem has been recently unveiled. The poem, a combined effort by three Mayfield School pupils, begins:

The Taylor River flows through Te Waiharakeke,

glistening in the sunshine,

drifting with the wind,

peaceful ...

 

   Another initiative from school students can be seen in Nelson.  Tahunanui Primary School’s Room 12 students decided to honour well known author Maurice Gee by placing a plaque on a seat at the start of the path leading up to the centre of New Zealand. The plaque reads ‘Bide a wee’ and was inspired after the students read one of Maurice Gee’s books The World around the Corner. Two of the characters meet at a seat which has a plaque with the words ‘Bide a wee’ on it. The students were disappointed to find there was no plaque on the seat as featured in the book. They wrote to the editor of the Nelson Mail and in response the Nelson City Council provided a plaque. This plaque complements the one on a chair on the banks of the Maitai River put in place by the Top of the South Branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors in May 2011. 

   The Taylor River Writers’ Walk and the new plaque for Maurice Gee will be welcome additions to the Top of the South Literary Trail scheduled to be released as a brochure or website or both in 2013.
    My mother told me once that my great-grandmother of Scottish origin used to say things like ‘Bide a wee’ meaning ‘Stay a while’, and used the word ‘bairn’ instead of child. She was also told not to ask questions so we missed out on a lot of family history. I can’t remember the phrase she used to get my mother to stop being so inquisitive but strangely enough I can still hear my mother’s voice in my head as she told me about it.

 

Sources:

Leonard Cohen quote from:  The Exercise Book: Creative writing exercises from Victoria University's Institute of Modern Letters edited by Bill Manhire, Ken Duncum, Chris Price and Damien Wilkins, Victoria University Press 2011, reprinted 2012.

 

Information about Maurice Gee plaque from NZSA Top of the South e-newsletter 14 September 2012.

Article about the Taylor River Walk: The Marlborough Express, Friday 24 August 2012