He Heru. A Comb. Objects talk back.

He Heru. Ein Kamm. Whiti Hereaka bei Objekte widersprechen – He Heru. Ein Kamm. Whiti Hereaka bei Objekte widersprechen

“Acquisition unclear.” This museum description of a traditional Māori ornamental comb leaves a silence in its wake. A piece of adornment with five teeth, one of them broken off. It seems almost unfinished. Award-winning novelist and playwright Whiti Hereaka embellishes it, piece by piece, with stories, breaking through the silence.

Her “stories of ocean blue, blood red, bone white” form a multilayered work reflecting reverence and beauty. In nine sections — “one part for each tooth and one part for each gap between them” — she tells of love, loss, and longing. She tells of the whales whose bones were used to make objects, and of a carver crafting a comb. She creates images of Māori deities and the power of women, but also of colonial whalers who hunted their prey in the South Pacific almost to extinction.

With He Heru. A Comb., Whiti Hereaka invites us to explore the cosmos she creates, combing through time and space while guided by the question: “Do we make up stories, or do stories make us up?”

The event includes a reading by Whiti Hereaka, a conversation with curator Priya Basil, questions from the audience, and a book signing.

Participants

Whiti Hereaka is a novelist and playwright of Māori and Pākehā descent. Her iwi affiliations are Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa, Ngāti Whakaue, Tūhourangi, Ngāti Tumatawera, and Tainui. She lives in Wellington, Aotearoa / New Zealand, and is the author of four novels: The Graphologist’s Apprentice, Bugs, Legacy, and Kurangaituku. She is also co-editor, with Witi Ihimaera, of an anthology of Māori myths, Pūrākau, published in 2019. Her latest work, You Are Here, a collaboration with artist Peata Larkin, was published by Massey University Press in 2025 as part of their Kōrero series.

Priya Basil is an author, and curator of the Humboldt Forum project Objects Talk Back. In her book Be My Guest/Gastfreundschaft (2019), she combines memoir, philosophy, food and politics in a reflection on hospitality in the broadest sense. Her most recent book  Locked In and Out (2025) explores memory-culture and belonging in Germany.

 

- 12 EUR / 6 EUR reduced
- Please book your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the foyer.
- Location: Mechanical Arena in the Foyer
-Part of: Objects talk back

Price info: Please book your ticket in advance online or at the box office in the foyer.

Price: €12.00

Reduced price: €6.00

Next date:

• Date Thursday, 05/November/2026 19:00 bis 20:30
• Venue Humboldt Forum
• Address Schloßplatz, 10178 Berlin-Mitte