Literary Reflection: Te Kahu Rolleston - Pen to Paper

Te Kahu Rolleston is a spoken word poet and educator from the island of Tauranga, with his poetry being largely about the land and culture he has lived with while honoring his ancestors and the struggles of the Māori  peoples. His piece Pen To Paper has been an influential slam poetry piece in the indigenous community since its release in 2014, and Rolleston uses various literary devices to help tell his story and drive his poetry.

Rolleston uses harsh slam poetry to convey the message of the struggles that society and the economy struggle, targeting the cultural struggles faced by the indigenous peoples around the world. His purpose is clear – to inform and showcase the intense anger towards society in today's day and age on a wider scale, discussing the modern age and how cultural traditions are slowly being lost to time as ancestors die and society becomes lazier and more full of technology as the years go by and the systems change. His spoken word slam poetry is rapid and aggressive, using harsh rhythms and rhyming techniques to create a clear, emotional poem that flows freely with cyclical nature where words and phrases are repeated to create a common theme throughout the piece. His usage of rhythm makes the piece feel like a song that has been stripped of its instrumental, and the rhyming nature of the poem is reminiscent of hip-hop music with its blunt aggression and serious subject matter. It isn’t a piece of literature that treads lightly and works to sugarcoat the problems that are being brought to the surface; it’s a completely raw showcase of rage and emotion surrounding the loss of indigenous culture and the impact it has had on the community for hundreds of years. The piece is powerful and direct, using traditional oral storytelling and poetic devices to make something head-on and serious. Rolleston compares the changing of the climate to the changing of his culture, with the line “Climate change, culture change” (Rolleston) opening the intense, fast-paced poem. World issues are compared to the issues of self, and the poem paints an important picture of society from an indigenous perspective. The message is importantly focused on the digitalization of society, and the major effect that it has had on people.