My cultural challenge

Zealand Order of Merit for her services to the Pacific community, literature and poetry.

And yet, ‘‘there are always going to be those people who cannot see you as anything except a finite stereotype’’.

The episode made a chapter in her memoir, which she’s been writing for two years and which was the subject of a meeting with Auckland University Press director Sam Elworthy, when almost as an afterthought, Marsh told him she’d been working on something a bit different: words and illustrations for a children’s book.

Marsh’s mother used to bring her to secondhand stores to pick out books, and remembers being particularly enamoured by Bad Jelly The Witch, written and drawn by Spike Milligan. A self-described doodler – ‘‘I never call myself an artist’’ – Marsh has been on a concerted effort to make her work more widely accessible.

One of Mophead’s themes is around cultural identity and what it is to be made up of different ethnic strands. ‘‘Growing up it was like, ‘what are you? Are you Samoan or are you English, or this, or that?’ But, I’m all of it. Sometimes the response was, ‘well you’re none of it then’.

‘‘Mophead is how I got into a space where, if we thought of identity as a rope, the more strands I have to my rope, the stronger it is. Words are worlds. If you lean in closely to a word it will tell you about its own world. This book is all about, where you stand matters – to stand with integrity.’’

Elworthy was hooked, and the memoir was no longer the centre of attention.

‘‘Suddenly, that project just leaped ahead of the memoir and everything else, and we were like, ‘why not? There’s a great story here’,’’ Elworthy says. ‘‘It was something about her visual style that immediately appealed to me. I just found it very fresh and high impact.

‘‘I’d seen Selina perform and talk at writers’ festivals and knew from that, that alongside her virtues as a poet she’s just a great storyteller about her own experiences, and full of fun and wit. I remember sitting at the Auckland Writers’ Festival, a tough old publisher, having a few tears in my eyes listening to her talk about growing up.’’

The result was a story that could appeal to all ages, adults too, and Elworthy says he’s never worked with an author so committed to working collaboratively. ‘‘In a way where you’re always willing to look to others and say, ‘what do you reckon about this?’’’

The book’s reviews are glowing. ‘‘It is a unique and utterly gorgeous book,’’ said NZ Book Lovers’ Rebekah Fraser. ‘‘Book of the year, I think,’’ wrote a reader on GoodReads.

For now, Marsh is busy working from her Waiheke Island home, and her memoir is still in the works. The alpha male from the James Cook Hotel can expect to make an appearance.

‘‘[Those] ignorant asses. I could have been a Pacific dignitary from overseas, and this is what they would have encountered? And then I thought, ‘I could have been the cleaner’, but you don’t talk to me like that, even then,’’ Marsh says.

‘‘That’s the power of story though, you can turn any pain into something useful. You can turn a weapon into a tool, if you story it.’’

Sunday News has 10 copies of Mophead to give away. To be in the draw, email kelly. dennett@stuff. co.nz with your story of accepting what makes you unique.

Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh’s debut children’s book has been such a success, the former poet laureate is working on a sequel, about performing for The Queen under the shadow of colonialism. She talks to about delivering ‘Colonialism 101 for kids’.