We are thrilled to welcome Moata McNamara and Neema Singh to our editing team. As Features Editor, Neema will bring new conversations and special points of focus to our pages, starting this month with her conversation with NFFD youth judge Shilo Kino. Moata joins the team as our Arts Editor with new artworks highlighted in each issue, beginning with her conversation with stained glass artist Suzanne Hanly with husband-glass technician Ben Hanly, for the Windows | Ngā Matapihi issue.
Both Neema and Moata are accomplished writers with many credits to their names. We are pleased to showcase some of their outstanding work here.
TWO STORIES BY MOATA MCNAMARA
Kāhu
He tae rorotu ki a Kāhu te mātete. E ai ki tōna whaea, ko te ‘karitane yellow’, ā, i whakakākahutia a Kāhu ki te kahu rangi kia ‘pīata mai ai ōna karu’.
Erangi ka wara a Kāhu ki te tae mātete o te whenua, o ngā tauwhenua hoki. Te tae o ngā hikurangi o te kāhu. Te tae o te waitae pākaka mai i te kaha o Tama-te-rā me ngā pukapuka tawhito hoki.
Ka ngaro te pai o te mātete i ngā rā, ā, ka mātete haere wētahi atu pukapuka.
I mārena a Kāhu i tētahi Pākehā whairawa, harikoa ana tōna whaea. I tētahi rā, ka kite a Kāhu i te tae mātete o ngā marū i tana tinana.
he wawā
ā, ka rere te kāhu
e oma rāpeti mā
Kāhu
Kāhu had always liked mustard. Her mother had called it ‘karitane yellow’ and dressed her in blue to ‘bring out the colour of her eyes’.
She wanted the slippery mustard of whenua and faraway lands. The wild-dance mustard of fur and feathers. The timemarking mustard of brown ink in sunlight and musty old books.
Mustard disappeared from fashion and many more pages turned her favourite colour.
She married a wealthy Pākehā to her mother’s joy. One day, looking down, she noticed blue welts turning a wild mustard.
one loud whūū
a kāhu rises
a rabbit thumps
From Te Moana o Reo | Ocean of Languages (2025) and the Phantom Billstickers NFFD micro series (2022).
See Moata read her work ‘Kahu’ in te reo Māori:
Hanging a round
Having been asked for something on circles
They arrive
The yellow end of the screwdriver handle
The roll of purple masking tape
The magnifying mirror for making small stitches
The wooden lid of the soy candle
The top of the chalk paint pot
The roll of green twist ties for the garden
The many white lids of pill bottles
The mouth of the glass of chorophyll
and the bottom too
The cordage on the Xmas tree
The roll of paper raffia for twining
The dome on the pencil case
The yellow eyes of Slinky Malinky
The black plug on the white acrylic tube
The lip of a test tube vase
The push part of a ball point pen
The letter O in zoom
And the zero time remaining
The scroll of washi
The dots on my shirt
The rings on the binder
Like the jar on the hill in Tennessee
The world comes to life in a circle
From Flash Frontier, December 2024
A series of watercolours
by Moata McNamara (Photography Sait Akkirman)
TWO STORIES BY NEEMA SINGH
ઘર | ghar | home
ઘર કયાંં છે? ઘર નથી. Ghar kya chhe? Ghar is no where. Not a city tucked under hills. Not border, birth જનમ janam or wood.
ખીસામા નાખી દે. Khisama nakhi de. Home is a pocket. રુમાલ roomal, biscuit, pink hair tie, a child’s purple drawing folded into a parcel.
A small girl leaving, searching for home. Home is her father’s hand, enclosing hers. Quietly chewed meals, sunstruck birthdays, uncrossable waters નદી. Home is her father’s hand in life and in death, facedown together on the edge of uncrossable water.
Home is in your hands.
ઘર તારા હાથમા છે.
From Te Moana o Reo | Ocean of Languages (2025) and the Phantom Billstickers NFFD micro series (2022).
Red Zone
We drive across town and over the bridge. The house is gone along with Hulverstone Drive. It’s like the sands stretching out around Ozymandias. It takes time to figure out our section and imagine where the house was. The autumn air is cool but the sun warms us. A man walks past with a broom; we smile. The kids run in the grass. Alongside the river I see the apple tree. The apples are bright red and huge. There are clusters and clusters of them up high in the tree, unreachable. Below is a carpet of fallen apples.
From Ōtautahi is Flash! (2024)
About Flash Frontier’s new editors
Moata McNamara is a recovering academic, writer and artist living in Whangaparaoa. Coming to creative writing late(ish) in life, her works have been published in Flash Frontier, At the Bay and Best Small Fictions 2023. She also has bilingual works included in Te Moana o Reo | The Language Ocean (The Cuba Press, 2025), and Short!/Poto! (Massey University Press, 2025). Her artworks have been exhibited in both Aotearoa and Australia and are held in private collections in Aotearoa, France and Italy. She holds a Masters in Art and Design (AUT) and a PhD in Māori Development (AUT).
Neema Singh is from Otāutāhi Christchurch and writes poetry and flash fiction. Neema is a first-generation New Zealander of Gujarati Indian descent. Her writing incorporates the use of Gujarati language alongside English. Neema’s work explores themes of identity, culture, language and migration and her writing seeks to shine a light on the ordinary. Neema’s work appears in Te Moana o Reo: Ocean of Languages (2025); Ōtautahi is Flash! (2024); the New Zealand Poetry Society anthologies 2023 and 2024; A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand (2021); Ko Aotearoa Tātou: We Are New Zealand.