It was the summer of 1997. On a northland hillside above Matapouri, among the tents and chaotic activity of extended camping, Leigh was reading Judith Binney’s Redemption Songs. I have a photo of him in a chair in the sun, wearing a loose Hawaiian shirt printed with brightly-coloured maps of African countries.

The Macoute text came from his reading and thinking about Te Kooti, the central figure in Judith’s important book.

 I think of Macoute as the urtext of what was to become a series of poem texts. These were, in turn, realised off-the-page in the form of 28 full-size flags as Station of Earth-bound Ghosts.[1] They first flew in 1998 in the recently decommissioned Central Railway Station in Auckland. The following year they flew again in Turanga (Gisborne), portraying a metaphorical return of Te Kooti to Rongopai, the marae made for him but to which he was forbidden to return.

The flags flew again after Leigh died, exhibited this time one-by-one as Time Text and Echoes, at the Jar Gallery on New North Road in Auckland, each one for 10 days.

They have not flown together since, although some have been raised and flown by whānau on the flagpole on the same northland hillside.

The location is not key, they are not station-centric, nor are they all about Te Kooti—although, as the figure in the urtext, he is a point about which other ghosts in the series revolve. The Macoute flag abides with us up north, flying on the wall of a spacious core building on the property. The presence of the figure commands our respect and attention; it provides a heart and core to our lives there, and it is also a protective sheltering figure.

It can confuse visitors to the property, even as it holds attention, and on one memorable occasion a young Congolese man called Solomon sat in front of it for a very long time before he said: ‘you know, those words should be in a rap with beats.’

   susan davis

notes

[1] Leigh Davis sought permission to use the upraised hand figure from Mrs Tihei Algie, the late senior great-granddaughter of Te Kooti, and at the time the head of his whānau. Davis contacted her daughter, Elizabeth Moeau, and son, Arikirangi Moeau, as well as travelling to Gisborne to meet with the family. At the request of Mrs Tihei Algie, an opening ceremony was held for Station of Earth-Bound Ghosts. It was conducted by Ringatū leader Wirangi Pera and Elizabeth Moeau, who blessed the Macoute flag.(See Betty Davis, ‘Re-visiting Leigh Davis’s Station of Earthbound Ghosts‘, Context, Issue 38, Winter 2019).