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Whooshing,
quardling, always returning and constantly honking; these
are some of the powerful sounds and images of the Holy Spirit
evoked by this hymn. In this hymn four New Zealand birds
speak of the Holy Spirit’s power to unify, revivify,
protect and defy description. Barry Brinson’s music seeks to
bring out the mystery of the Spirit’s presence.
We
are familiar with the Holy Spirit as a dove through the
gospel accounts of Jesus’ baptism. In verse 1, the
Holy Spirit comes as a ‘loud whooshing presence’,
as at Pentecost, but here the whooshing is from the kereru
(NZ native wood pigeon) flying low, sometimes directly above
one’s head, beating its powerful wings. This large
bird, 51 cm long from tail to beak, has spectacular diving
displays. It helps regenerate endangered native forests
as the last surviving bird able to spread the large seeds
of the taraire, nikau, karaka and miro trees. Although protected
since 1921, Kereru (or kukupa as they are called in Northland)
are still vulnerable to predators including people; they
are both ‘kingly and vulnerable’.
‘Kingly’
evokes masculine images of the Holy Spirit in the western
tradition. There are also many feminine images of God in
Holy Scripture, mainly lost in Bible translations. One unusual
image, which links nurturing behaviour with aggressive behaviour,
is Yahweh-as-Mother-Bear (Hosea 13.8). The prophet shows
that human failure to recognise our debt to God causes to
God-as-Mother-Bear to become enraged at us (1).
Verse
two explores this idea through Jane’s symbol of the
mother magpie, both protective and aggressive. The Australian magpie,
was introduced into New Zealand
from 1864-1874 to control pasture pests. Its song is a beautiful,
flute-like carolling, described by the Canterbury poet Denis
Glover as ‘quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle’.
(2) During the nesting season the mother magpie becomes
very protective and she may swoop and attack people nearby
who appear to be a threat to her young. This ‘wounding’,
this ‘dark side’ of the Holy Spirit, makes sense
in the context of protective, maternal love.
In
Maori proverbs, the Kuaka or Bar-tailed Godwit (verse 3)
speaks of unity, strength and resolve, qualities associated
with the Holy Spirit. Kuaka are very communal birds, and
therefore able to fly vast distances where there are no
landmarks. They keep together in long lines and in chevrons,
call to one another and use their slipstreams in rotation
to help one another on their non-stop journeys. These Arctic
waders arrive at the northernmost shores of New Zealand in
mid-September, spread out down the country, and return in
March or early April for the 11,000 km journey back to their
breeding grounds in Alaska. Some are found on South Island
inlets, estuaries and coastal lagoons.
The
rising interest in Celtic spirituality in many western churches
over the last twenty years has made the ‘Wild Goose’
a familiar image of the Holy Spirit. The last verse evokes
the ‘communal and restless’ Canadian Goose. They
call to each other in flight with loud ‘honks’
and make an even louder cacophonous sound when they land.
They breed around lakes and rivers in the South Island high
country and migrate to Lake Ellesmere south of Banks Peninsula
for the autumn moult, returning to the mountains in springtime.
This
3/4 time hymn is sung in unison with the piano or organ.
To bring out the mystery of the Spirit’s presence,
Barry Brinson has created a medieval, modal and folkish
atmosphere in the music.
©
Jane Simpson (2002)
- Virginia
Ramey Mollenkott, The divine feminine: the biblical
imagery of God as female, New York, Crossroad, 1985,
pp.49-53.
- Denis
Glover, 'The Magpies', in An anthology of twentieth
century New Zealand poetry, 2nd ed., selected by Vincent
O'Sullivan, Auckland, Auckland University Press, 1986,
pp.139-40 [1st publ'd 1941]
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