Here are all the ways the story is the same
The story always begins at the takutaimoana, the shoormal
where sea meets sand [1]
The story always reminds us that there are
rocks
on the shore [2]
where they first meet
(The story always skims across the how and why of their meeting,
notes that he stumbles upon her by ‘chance’ [3])
The story always includes
a seal-skin
a sea-dress
a cloak
a cap or
a kākahu
a covering which means that
the story always tells us that she is uncovered
on discovery
The story always gives her kind as selkie silkie selchie seal-maiden finn-folk maighdeann-ròin maighdean-mhara [4]
The story always lingers on how
álainn ātaahua beautiful bonnie bòidheach lovely
she is
The story always centres on an entrapment, a betrayal [5]
The story always reminds us that there are
children [6] she will leave behind [7]
The story always ends with her returning to the sea.
____________________________________________________________
It is always nighttime, it is always moon-lit, it is always
just dark enough
The rocks are where things can be hidden – people
and shed skins
and secrets
the intent, it’s implied, comes later, so we can’t assign fault
but never her name
Sometimes the betrayal is at the beginning
in the stealing of seal-skin, sometimes near the end
with the trickery and trap of cooked kai
but it is the same betrayal every time:
he stops her returning to her kin
The story forgets to remind us that children are made
of earth and salt-water
and belong to both-worlds & neither-world
always caught inbetween
The story forgets to remind us that sometimes
she takes them with her
The story forgets to remind us that
this is her choice to make
Arielle Walker (Taranaki, Ngāruahine, Ngāpuhi, Pākehā) is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based contemporary artist, writer and maker. Her practice seeks pathways towards reciprocal belonging through tactile storytelling and ancestral narratives, weaving in the spaces between, all salt and seal-skin.