Tu

Tu by Patricia Grace is the story of three brothers from Waitara who go off to fight in WWII as part of the Maori Battalion.

It is the story of a whanau ripped to pieces by wars, women and a society who treated Maori as second class citizens.

Section One: Patricia Grace's whakapapa

Patricia Grace has been an important part of New Zealand's literary canon for quite some time. She has written numerous novels and short stories and has won multiple awards for her work. She was one of the first authors who was able to give space to Maori stories as described in this Guardian article - important in a world dominated by Pakeha. Learn more about her here.

Pick at LEAST THREE of these sources and be able to write about what motivates Patricia Grace to write her stories.

Section Two: Important historical events from NZ history

Patricia Grace often bases her work on actual events in history. Tu follows the actual lines of the Maori Battalion and the Centenary and Ngati Poneke Club were actual things as well. Read the following links and find out more about NZ historical events that actually occurred as this will help you understand her writing better.

Section Three: Close reading Tu

Read Tu for the first time. As you do, complete this task:

1. Character map - on a piece A3, write down each of the characters as you come across them. Draw arrows between the characters to denote their relationships and add in adjectives that describe each character and at least one quote for each characters.

After completing your first reading of Tu, complete these tasks to set you up for a close analysis of Tu.

1. Audience positioning. Write down five words that describe how you feel after reading this book. For example, sad, happy. These adjectives will become your tools for discussing the impact on the audience. So always keep them in front of you.

2. Figure out of the theme. What's this story about? To do this, work through these questions:

   1. Who's the main protagonist?

   2. What challenges do they face?

   3. How do they face these challenges?

   4. How do they change over the course of the narrative?

   5. What main ideas are thrown up by the adventures of the protagonist and what do you learn about these ideas?

3. Some big questions to consider about Tu.

• 1. Who is really the main protagonist of the story?

  2. How would you describe the narrative structure of the story and why has Patricia Grace chosen it?

  3. Why is it important that Tu is Pita's "confessor"? In other words, why does Tu tell Pita's story and not Pita himself?

4. Think about which chapter you remember best. It is now time to reread this chapter, thinking about these things as you go:

• 1. What is the title of the chapter? Tu has very definite chapter titles - what is the significance of each one?

  2. Who is the main protagonist of this chapter? What are they doing, thinking about, reacting to?

  3. Identify TEN main quotes from this chapter - note these and justify why you have chosen each one.

  4. Identify language features that Patricia Grace employs in this chapter and explain why you think she used it.

Resources to help you analyse the story

• Quotes and Themes

Section Four: Some other takes on Tu - stretching your thinking

In the mid-2000s, Tu was repackaged as a stage show. It changed my understanding of the story from one about racism and war, to one about the intricacies of whanau and what it means to be part of a whanau. Have a look at these YouTube clips and reviews to see what you can add to your understanding of the novel. Then complete these questions:

1. What do your reviews say about your text?

2. What do the reviews say about the theme and characters?

3. What do the reviews say about why the book was written?

4. What questions do you start to think about as you read these reviews?

Section Five: Research

Below are the Level Two and Three research options. Work with your teacher to ensure that you are on the right pathway.

Level Two Research

Level Two research asks you to pull an issue out of your text and learn more about it so that it increases your understanding of your text. Click this link to find out what you need to do.

Level Three Unit Standard Written Texts Research

Level Three Unit Standard research asks you to use articles and book reviews to learn more about the author and what they are writing about so that it increases your understanding of your text. Click this link to find out what you need to do.

Level Three Achievement Standard Critical Texts Research

We are now going to stretch our thinking of the text by engaging in critical text research. What this means is that we read how experts have interpreted, understood and thought about the text so that we can understand better ourselves. Below are some critical texts that relate to this text and to understand what the research project is asking you to do (as well as how to do it), click here.

The following are critical texts that relate to Tu. Some will have a direct link, naming the novel directly, and others will be linked by the insight they provide about the background or motivation of the author to write her story.

In no way should you read all of these, cover to cover. You need to be more strategic; look at the titles, read the contents page to pick which sections of the book are best to read, skim and scan to identify sections of chapters that you need to read closely and take notes from - look for keywords from your questions, use subheadings to identify relevant sections.

Not all of these critical texts will answer your questions; so look for the ones that do. Pick three to four to read and take notes from.

Also, if you find that you aren't answering one of your questions, and/or your reading is taking you in a new and unexpected direction, simply change your questions and hypothesis in line with what you are reading - this is what research is; learning and changing what you think as you learn more.

When considering Tu, it could be viewed through a number of literary lenses. The most obvious of which is the Postcolonial lens - the looking at the world from the point of view of indigenous people. Also, it could be viewed through a feminist lens - through which you could look specifically at the positioning of Ani Rose and Jess but also the positioning of Pita, as the family 'bread winner'.

• Matthew Packer - E Tu: On teaching Patricia Grace's Novel of the Maori Battalion

• Joel Rupert Mahuika - Patricia Grace's Tu: Reading the novel for Indigenous insight

• Paola Della Valle - Antipodean Affinities: The Maori and Italy in Patricia Grace's Tu

• Alice Anne Te Punga Somerville - Nau te rourou, nau te rakau: The Oceanic, indigenous, postcolonial and New Zealand comparative contexts of Maori writing in English

• Michelle Keown - Interview with Patricia Grace

• Paloma Fresno Calleja - An Interview with Patricia Grace

• Linda Michelle Rodenburg - Spiral Reading Strategies: Re/citing Maori and Aboriginal Stories in Relation to the Nation

• Yanwei Tan - Weaving the Past into an Unfolding Present: Subject Formation in the Maori Novel

• Ian Thomas Strathern - Tatai Tara Genealogical Storying: A Foundation of Decolonisation in Oceania

• Tina Makereti - Stories are the centre: The place of fiction in contemporary understandings and expressions of indigeneity

• Tina Makereti - Maori Writing: Speaking with Two Mouths

• Ann Katherine Pistacchi - Spiralling Subversions: The Politics of Maori Cultural Survivance in the Recent Critical Fictions of Patricia Grace, Paula Morris, and Kelly Ana Morey