This is the story of a boy called Hohepa and how his efforts to create a talking stick reflect his desire to re-awaken respect for the traditional Maori ways in his family.
Hohepa has a dream in which he is in the meeting house with his family. He is waiting for a talking stick to be passed to him so that he can speak, but there isn't one. His family begin to leave. He begs them not to go, but no one listens to him. When he wakens, Hohepa decides that he must make a talking stick for his family because they are forgetting the old ways. He chooses a piece of kauri, and works on it every day. Little by little the talking stick begins to take shape. What had seemed to be dead was coming to life.
