First Rain

Written originally in Me'phaa, First Rain is a selection of poems that emerged from the poet responding to the death of his grandmother who declared to him in 2005: I will die in the days when the first rains come.

The work mourns both the loss of a grandmother, and the fading away (like her sight in later life) of a culture and language that hold so much history and pride.

In this way, they address social, racial and gender inequalities, environmental abuses and injustices faced by native peoples in Latin America - issues that have resonance globally.

As the poet recounts: In the face of the wind, grab the stones that are falling upon us, one of his grandmother's phrases, refers to people standing up to injustice.

This collection, Hubert Matiuwaa's first ever in English, is a gathering of stones.