Objects with Special Meaning

To celebrate the release of my debut novel Airwoman I did a series of posts discussing where I’ve derived inspiration for my book. Ideas come from everywhere, and these are just a few I’ve selected. In this post, I want to describe where I found the inspiration for two of the items that are important to Jade.

Pikoura

For those of you who have read the free preview of Airwoman (and if you have not, you can find it here), you will know that Jade receives a pikorua from Axel–with a message about their friendship.

When I was at university, I travelled in New Zealand during one summer break (many years before I lived there). I travelled to Christchurch (yes, before the earthquake) and while I was there, I participated in a Maori craft session. Essentially, I spent an afternoon making my own Maori pendant under the supervision of a Maori craftsperson. I chose to carve a pikorua. I forget what I actually carved it out of (possibly bone), and I think it has been long lost in one of my many house moves. However, I do remember being very proud of my lopsided pikorua! Not only that, it was a very pleasant afternoon spent talking with those Maori people about their customs and lives.

Hiking in Peru

Whether this is ultimately true or not is irrelevant–this piece of random musing by our guide wedged itself into my imagination, only to come out when I was world-building the Premyan civilisation.

While my husband and I lived in the UK, we went on holiday to Peru to hike the Lares Trek to Macchu Picchu. I have wanted to go to South America since I was a little girl and this trip was an absolute dream for me. The Lares Trek was really interesting, as it led through little towns and we were able to see some of the local people on our way. One of the things we saw over and over again were coloured strings hanging from the ceilings with lots of little knots in them. When we asked what they were for, our guide said it wasn’t known. Much of the knowledge of Incan civilisation has been lost since colonisation. Incan society was prehistoric—that is, its history was not written down.

Perhaps decoration, or perhaps it had a particular use–some kind of abacus or perhaps a record. Our guide said something that stuck with me–he hoped that one day some sort of Rosetta Stone would be found that told us what these knotted strings were for, because he felt sure that they had some use beyond mere decoration. Whether this is ultimately true or not is irrelevant–this piece of random musing by our guide wedged itself into my imagination, only to come out when I was world-building the Premyan civilisation. It became their method of writing and sending messages.

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