***aCe***
The joys and tensions of creating literature in the Pacific......
Koror, the Republic of Palau, Wednesday, July 28, 2004: Whether they write in their own language or English, in their own fashion or following western styles, writers in the Pacific commit to paper expressions of their own homeland's oral culture.
But Pacific writers who draw on their own traditions and culture live in a state of perpetual tension, according to writers who have attended a symposium in Koror, Palau.
When a story from oral tradition is committed to paper, a certain amount is lost: tone of voice, gestures, expressions, the personal relationship between teller and listener.
"Once it's written, it's like it is carved," says writer Mrs Tialuga Sunia-Seloti of American Samoa, who led the symposium on literature at the 9th Festival of Pacific Arts.
Writers, she says, "have a two-fold task: to nurture their personal interests and talent as well as retain a sense of responsibility to their own people."
However, many of the writers at the Festival say work based on their own traditions and history has prompted attacks from amongst their own people.
The reasons vary. Some people, say symposium members, fundamentally disagree with the recording of oral traditional stories.
Others feel local people should not be the subjects of biographies, especially if the remarks are outspoken or critical.
And there are some who find writing by one of their number bearing the elements of western narrative style - sex, drugs and violence, for example - offensive to community sensibilities.
"We're so available for them to attack," says Mrs Sunia-Seloti. "We can't be attacked by Europeans because they're so far away."
One writer says that if that if she had known the fuss her novel's publication would cause, she possibly would not have written it.
Writers "have to have thick skins and courage," says Mrs Sunia-Seloti. And she adds that writers at the Festival agree on the importance of continuing to record stories from oral tradition, "or there will be no recall, no memory".
Writers drawing on their own culture in their work must maintain their integrity and respect their source material, says scriptwriter and filmmaker Mr Vilsoni Hereniko, who also attended the symposium. (He is the scriptwriter, director and co-producer of the recent film The Land Has Eyes , which is showing at the Festival.)
Even if the goal of writers is to reach as wide an audience as possible, they must resist pressure - financial or otherwise - to change their work solely to please the marketplace. That includes "sex and violence just to titillate the audience", he says.
"Our stories are not like that. They are usually influenced very much by the environment, the land, sometimes our fragile ecosystems, by relationships, about how these are often more important than money or material things ...", he says.
For outsiders, these stories are education as well as entertainment. "The more knowledge we have of each other, the less likely we are to be prejudiced," he says. "And I think prejudice comes from ignorance and fear of the unknown." Literature, he says, can help make the world a more understanding place.
This Festival has also included a well-attended five-day creative writing workshop led by American science fiction author Alan Foster.
He is in no doubt that Pacific peoples should record their stories - and for profit.
As he points out, his course is subtitled "How to take the stories your grandfather told you and turn them into commercial fiction".
It's a stance some might find offensive. Ask Mr Foster if such an approach risks compromising a people's collective culture for individual benefit, and he disagrees: "You have to be respectful of the original material ... but commercialised culture is better than the extinction of a culture."
If writers can support themselves using their words, they should, he says, even if some of the work is more a means to an end. As he puts it: "I suggest [the European painter] Rembrandt did not want to spend his time painting fat, rich businessmen."
Mr Foster says that reaction to his workshops here and in other parts of the world suggests that people are "very interested" in recording and selling the traditional stories they grew up with.
Mrs Sunia-Seloti has written a poem especially for the Festival, dedicated to the canoe carvers present, and she has given her permission for its reproduction in the news media on this occasion:
The Canoe Carver
Like clay in the potter's hands
That felled Tamanu tree is yours to shape
Lata learned the hard way
When revenge was motive
Nature must be appeased
Her children stand tall
in the forest green
Shelter for foliage and fauna
From penalty of burning sun
Nest for many a morning singer
Now the object of the carver's mastery
Converting tree to mobile friend
Yet chips are subject to nature's rule
"Fly together, you my children ..."
Tamanu tree standing tall once again
Now with nature's approval
Lata's vessel, the design of his hand
Moves man from village to beyond
From island to island
Easing traveler of loads
Fruits of laborers
Catch of fishermen
Treasures of weaver,
The weight of matai,
Artists and kin
Young and old, big and small
May the Giver of all
Bless the work
of your carving hands
July 14, 2004: Dedicated to the canoe carvers present at Belau Festival of Pacific Arts.
From the book Foasaga - Presentation of Fine Mats: A collection of English and Samoan Poetry , by Tialuga Sunia-Seloti. Lomiga Publications, July 2004.
For more information about the book, please email Tialuga Sunia-Seloti on tiasel@yahoo.com.
For more information on Palau, see:
www.visit-palau.com or www.palaugov.net/links.html
For more information, please contact:
Rhonda Griffiths <mailto:RhondaG@spc.int> , Cultural Affairs Adviser, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Mobile in Palau: + 00680 779 3612.
Alexander Merep, Festival Director and Minister for Community and Cultural Affairs, Tel: +00680 488 1126.
Koror, the Republic of Palau, Wednesday, July 28, 2004: Whether they write in their own language or English, in their own fashion or following western styles, writers in the Pacific commit to paper expressions of their own homeland's oral culture.
But Pacific writers who draw on their own traditions and culture live in a state of perpetual tension, according to writers who have attended a symposium in Koror, Palau.
When a story from oral tradition is committed to paper, a certain amount is lost: tone of voice, gestures, expressions, the personal relationship between teller and listener.
"Once it's written, it's like it is carved," says writer Mrs Tialuga Sunia-Seloti of American Samoa, who led the symposium on literature at the 9th Festival of Pacific Arts.
Writers, she says, "have a two-fold task: to nurture their personal interests and talent as well as retain a sense of responsibility to their own people."
However, many of the writers at the Festival say work based on their own traditions and history has prompted attacks from amongst their own people.
The reasons vary. Some people, say symposium members, fundamentally disagree with the recording of oral traditional stories.
Others feel local people should not be the subjects of biographies, especially if the remarks are outspoken or critical.
And there are some who find writing by one of their number bearing the elements of western narrative style - sex, drugs and violence, for example - offensive to community sensibilities.
"We're so available for them to attack," says Mrs Sunia-Seloti. "We can't be attacked by Europeans because they're so far away."
One writer says that if that if she had known the fuss her novel's publication would cause, she possibly would not have written it.
Writers "have to have thick skins and courage," says Mrs Sunia-Seloti. And she adds that writers at the Festival agree on the importance of continuing to record stories from oral tradition, "or there will be no recall, no memory".
Writers drawing on their own culture in their work must maintain their integrity and respect their source material, says scriptwriter and filmmaker Mr Vilsoni Hereniko, who also attended the symposium. (He is the scriptwriter, director and co-producer of the recent film The Land Has Eyes , which is showing at the Festival.)
Even if the goal of writers is to reach as wide an audience as possible, they must resist pressure - financial or otherwise - to change their work solely to please the marketplace. That includes "sex and violence just to titillate the audience", he says.
"Our stories are not like that. They are usually influenced very much by the environment, the land, sometimes our fragile ecosystems, by relationships, about how these are often more important than money or material things ...", he says.
For outsiders, these stories are education as well as entertainment. "The more knowledge we have of each other, the less likely we are to be prejudiced," he says. "And I think prejudice comes from ignorance and fear of the unknown." Literature, he says, can help make the world a more understanding place.
This Festival has also included a well-attended five-day creative writing workshop led by American science fiction author Alan Foster.
He is in no doubt that Pacific peoples should record their stories - and for profit.
As he points out, his course is subtitled "How to take the stories your grandfather told you and turn them into commercial fiction".
It's a stance some might find offensive. Ask Mr Foster if such an approach risks compromising a people's collective culture for individual benefit, and he disagrees: "You have to be respectful of the original material ... but commercialised culture is better than the extinction of a culture."
If writers can support themselves using their words, they should, he says, even if some of the work is more a means to an end. As he puts it: "I suggest [the European painter] Rembrandt did not want to spend his time painting fat, rich businessmen."
Mr Foster says that reaction to his workshops here and in other parts of the world suggests that people are "very interested" in recording and selling the traditional stories they grew up with.
Mrs Sunia-Seloti has written a poem especially for the Festival, dedicated to the canoe carvers present, and she has given her permission for its reproduction in the news media on this occasion:
The Canoe Carver
Like clay in the potter's hands
That felled Tamanu tree is yours to shape
Lata learned the hard way
When revenge was motive
Nature must be appeased
Her children stand tall
in the forest green
Shelter for foliage and fauna
From penalty of burning sun
Nest for many a morning singer
Now the object of the carver's mastery
Converting tree to mobile friend
Yet chips are subject to nature's rule
"Fly together, you my children ..."
Tamanu tree standing tall once again
Now with nature's approval
Lata's vessel, the design of his hand
Moves man from village to beyond
From island to island
Easing traveler of loads
Fruits of laborers
Catch of fishermen
Treasures of weaver,
The weight of matai,
Artists and kin
Young and old, big and small
May the Giver of all
Bless the work
of your carving hands
July 14, 2004: Dedicated to the canoe carvers present at Belau Festival of Pacific Arts.
From the book Foasaga - Presentation of Fine Mats: A collection of English and Samoan Poetry , by Tialuga Sunia-Seloti. Lomiga Publications, July 2004.
For more information about the book, please email Tialuga Sunia-Seloti on tiasel@yahoo.com.
For more information on Palau, see:
www.visit-palau.com or www.palaugov.net/links.html
For more information, please contact:
Rhonda Griffiths <mailto:RhondaG@spc.int> , Cultural Affairs Adviser, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Mobile in Palau: + 00680 779 3612.
Alexander Merep, Festival Director and Minister for Community and Cultural Affairs, Tel: +00680 488 1126.