Pasifika students tell stories of their own
A group of budding Pasifika writers have had the chance to craft their own stories with the help of an established writer.
Fourteen students from around Palmerston North worked with Massey visiting artist Feana Tu’akoi yesterday at a writing workshop at Ross Intermediate School.
Tu’akoi, who is palangi and whose husband is Tongan, started writing because she wanted her children to see families like theirs represented in books.
She said she was always trying to encourage Pasifika people to write, and this workshop was part of that.
‘‘I want Pasifika voices, because no matter how much it is our experience, when I write a story it is with a palangi voice. Because I’m palangi, I can’t write with a Pasifika voice, and we need Pasifika voices.’’
The focus for the workshop was to help them hook into their stories.
It started with the students writing a poem about themselves and then they worked on writing a piece based on their experience, whatever they were interested in or what was important to them.
‘‘Every story that we get will have a Pasifika world view, whether or not it’s about Pasifika-specific experience.
‘‘We want stories with a Pasifika world view because that’s what we are short on in books.’’
Kilauea Petero, of Ross Intermediate School, said she enjoyed writing, and she was working on a piece about Tokelau language week.
She wanted to write about it because it was part of her culture and she had not written about it much before.
Sontel Liuvaie, of Roslyn School, was writing about her nana’s 80th birthday, which she said was an important event. ‘‘It makes me feel happy and proud to be writing about my family.’’
Tu’akoi said the work produced during the workshop would be printed in a zine that would be launched at Square Edge Community Arts Centre.
It would be available from Bruce McKenzie Booksellers, Square Edge, and would also be part of the Palmerston North Library collection, as well as school libraries.
The zine would be professionally printed by Fisher Print, who would also be doing the design and the layout.
A number of different islands, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Niue, Tokelau and Vanuatu, were represented at the workshop.
Laite Fonongaloa, of Roslyn School said she felt good, about her work going into a zine that people could read at the library or buy from the bookstore.
‘‘I get to share my writing with other people who enjoy reading.’’