Symbolized in the bird’s flight, a group of Māori, Pākehā and Colombian creatives explore life’s journey, the longing to return to the nest, and the life-giving connection with our ancestors.

Dedication: "Mō koutou e noho tāwhiti ana i te kainga, mō koutou anō te ahi kā." (For you who live far from home and for you who keep the home fires burning.)

A collaborative Māori language poetry film created during an online writing and film workshop run by Charles Olsen and Peta-Maria Tunui during the Covid-19 confinement in Spain and Aotearoa, New Zealand, March–July 2020.

The workshop was guided by tikanga Māori (Māori customs). Through a collective process participants shared kupu (words) we associate with childhood. After writing poems inspired by these kupu, we created our own short poetry films before working together on a collaborative poetry film based on Peta-Maria's poem "Noho Mai." We each directed, filmed and edited different stanzas of the poem following a group brainstorming, and these were edited together into the final piece by Charles Olsen along with aerial footage from Ash Robinson and taonga puoro (traditional instruments) from Salvador Brown. To acknowledge everyone's contribution we present all the workshop participants as Ngā Kaitohu (Directors).