CAST TWO SHADOWS

Tu Tangata, Issue 28, 1 February 1986, Page 31

CAST TWO SHADOWS

Cast Two Shadows

Joan Rosier-Jones. Hodder & Stroughton. $17.95

It took me some days to put into words just what I experienced in Cast Two Shadows. Perhaps it was because I was vunerable to the main character and cried for her in her pain of growing up. And perhaps I haven’t been moved for some time by a book and needed a kick inside.

I’m totally aware of the authors background and after reading this book, it matters little to me what degree of Maori ancestry she may or may not have. What does matter is her gripping tale of two sisters with a common Maori mother and a Chinese and a Dalmatian father respectively. The uncaring, irresponsible attitude of the mother Tui and her inability to cope with being a mother to her daughters is real.

The tale is told through the eldest girl, Emma who remembers the few years before their mother was home, on and off with the Chinese father. Years of some schooling but mostly years of becoming street wise in looking after themselves. Times of taking Lily her younger sister to school and hiding her by the school gate so that she could sneak her a bottle of milk. Times of being befriended by the funny girl down the street and discovering real sheets on beds. And of being given a doll as a present.

And then getting used to mummy’s boyfriends, and the welcome treats that

would follow. This abruptly changes when the threesome go to live with the Chinese in-laws, who have little patience with the flippant mother. Hardwork soon replaces any room for feeling sorry for self.

But another change is due and the mother seeks an easier deal for herself with her Maori in-laws. The two girls get split up but the doll remains with Emma. Her life after this with her koro and kuia is like heaven but soon her hell returns. Cast Two Shadows also uses the technique of shooting forward to

the present day, where the now married Emma is confronted with those unhealed growing hurts. I believe today’s generation of parents must, like Emma, heal their own growing hurts before they can understand why our society is faced with so much division and rebellion today.

At the end of the book Emma acknowledges this when she buries her doll at the foot of an English Oak tree, and so brings into wholeness her separated ancestry.