Talia Marshall is a writer based in Ōtepoti Dunedin whose debut book is the critically acclaimed memoir Whaea Blue. We asked Talia what she wants for 2025.
1. I want to go on a cruise.
This is not as noxious as it may intially sound. I come from the bones buried at the Wairau Bar and it is believed these people may have come from the Marquesas and Society Islands near Tahiti. There is a small freighter cruise called the Aranui which supplies the islands and takes tourists, mostly elderly and white, to sites like lecherous Gauguin's grave. Sometimes there is nowhere to dock so passengers are thrown from a side door onto a D-day style barge. I have watched hours of amateur footage of the cruise and gone on many virtual tours of the Aranui and have chosen the Royal suite because you can't see the balcony from the bed and it's low enough to the water so won't set off any feelings of vertigo. I am writing a novel tentatively titled Opal & Dallas about a mother and daughter who are made to go on the Aranui cruise because Emerald, Opal's other daughter has gone missing. I need more than my imagination for this one.
2. I want an airfryer
I always give in to trends too late. But after feeling intially suspicious of the airfryer and burning the roof of my mouth on some chicken wings that were far too hot I've decided it will be as handy as a microwave. But with less radiation. I'd also like to feel like less of a complicit witness as the atrocities of Gaza compete with airfryers and influencers plugging kawakawa balm on my Instagram feed. I would like the banality of evil unfolding daily before our eyes to end and to be replaced by the banality of airfryers.
3. Stop making Italians angry
Speaking of atrocities I saw someone put gnocchi into an airfryer. This should not be allowed. Also cooking pasta using any method that doesnt involve boiling water. You are making Nonna very angry. Luckily a Mediterranean diet lowers blood pressure but still the abuse of pasta needs to stop. It goes without saying that it is mainly Americans committing food crimes, which is not quite on a scale with supplying to Israel...
4. I want to become a Nonna
My italian and Māori genes are desperate for moko. Hopefully before I turn 50 in 2028. The main thing about having hope in a world that is on fire is having somewhere useful to put it. Children and hope were made for each other. Let's make a world that is safe for them to enter.
5. Every Nana needs a rose garden
I used to be middle class enough to afford a decorative garden. I had over 50 rose bushes, all with exquisite blooms and wayward names. I want that lifestyle back. I want orange and purple perennials and salvia bluer than the sky. I want to sit in the garden at dusk and watch all the colour deepen and the white roses glow and wait for my moko to come over. I will put the water on for some pasta. The world will grind on. And on. I want to worry less about the weather.
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