Edgewalker

Poet for stage and page Grace Iwashita-Taylor and director Ursula Grace combine their rich cultural traditions and disciplines of poetry and film to explore their deep connection to the ocean. 

Iwashita-Taylor is a pre-eminent poet of Tāmaki Makarau, both for her printed poetry and in the live and raw world of slam poetry. She’s also a founding leader of the South Auckland Poet’s Collective.

In Edgewalker, she takes the Going West brief - the idea of the “littoral” or “coastal” -  and uses it to trace her own ancestral connection to the ocean, querying the tense relationship between the ocean’s finite resources and humanity’s seemingly infinite demands.

Drawing on her Pasifika heritage, Iwashita-Taylor finds both spiritual and scientific connections with Te-moana-nui-a-kiwa.

“I am particles/ I am the particles absorbed/ I am the particles left behind … I am the body steeped deep / extracting mineral medicine/ from the ancestors’ marrow to soak in”

Ursula Grace is a compelling Pasifika filmmaker who has produced a number of socially impactful documentaries for Vice, RNZ, Loading Docs, TV and more.

She honours the language of Iwashita-Taylor’s Edgewater with a visual poetry that both compliments and extends the text.

Working with animation wunderkinds Pixelpush and composer Bandon Haru, Grace has created an immersive world around Iwashita-Taylor’s words.

Grace and Iwashita-Taylor’s shared afikasi identity and potent creative impulses combine to deliver a powerful poetic collaboration.

Grace Iwashita-Taylor (left and Ursula Grace (right)

Credits:
Poet: Grace Iwashita-Taylor
Director: Ursula Grace
Designers/Animators: Pixelpush
Music: Brandon Haru

Commissioned by Going West Writers Festival with the support of Waitākere Ranges Local Board, Auckland Council and Creative New Zealand