Potiki

"I listened to the lessons on goodness and knew that Mary was the closest to the Jesus tin, being never calumnious nor detractful, slanderous, murderous, disobedient, covetous, jealous nor deceiving. I knew that she needed my care."

Roimata's comment that Mary possesses none of the characteristics that are condemned by the Ten Commandments, and is therefore the child most deserving of the reward of picking a toffee or picture from the Jesus tin, reveals Mary's innocence and, by extension, her mental disability. Aside from highlighting Mary's vulnerability, this comment ironically suggests that so-called sins are only committed by fully-functioning people, conveying the imperfectness of human nature. This comment is perhaps intended to foreshadow the unscrupulous and criminal behavior to be displayed later by the property developers.

"Only Hemi could secure me, he being as rooted to the earth as a tree is."

This comparison of Hemi to a tree serves to highlight Hemi's dependability as well as his connection to the land and belief in it as a means of making a living and providing for his people. It also highlights the difference between him and Roimata, the latter of whom, having spent twelve years away from home, feels lost and unrooted, with the desire to return to her origins.

"It was a discarding, or a renewal, like the washing of hands that takes leave of death and turns one toward the living."

After having returned from her long period away from home, Roimata spends a night on the shore. In the morning, before venturing to greet her people, she bathes in the sea, which symbolizes a shedding of her old life and the beginning of a new and happier one with