In matuhi - needle, her debut collection, there are poems of praise, love and gratitude. Words, phrases and cultural concepts in the Maori world are given a new and different life via her love and recovery of Te Reo - which can be translated as "the voice". Other poems are inscribed with the sordid and the badly-behaved, or admit to feelings of inadequacy and avoidance. Some reflect a history of personal and political invasion and occupation. All are alive with grace, intellect and control.