Bleeding Rainbow
(to Noah’s Nana)
One of my best friends
Is a mixture of all different bloods
Her blood is bleeding rainbow
She’s quarter Chinese
Her daughter’s long straight black hair
A memory of many miles of ocean
Told from an era of fading memory
She’s eighth Indian
Her son’s features
Follow this story closely
She’s quarter Cook Island
The sway of her moko’s hips
Like waves in Raro
And lali drumming his movements
She’s quarter Samoan
Her puletasi tattoos her ancestor’s history
She’s eighth Pākehā
Her language mirrors this whakapapa
She’s eighth Māori
Her footprints on the whenua
Fingerprints on her whanau
Voices of her forefathers
Drifting across the ocean
Her blood is a bleeding rainbow
Of our diversity in Aotearoa
Tongan born Author and Poet, Mepa Taufa-Vuni, is a mother of four beautiful children, Sione Fangu, Taaniela, Nanise and Litea. Her husband Siaosi Vuni is a great supporter of her work. A graduate from the University of Auckland and the University of the South Pacific. Mepa works as a maths specialist at Fairburn School at Otahuhu, Auckland, New Zealand.
