Aaron: Four Poems and Sione's Wedding: Traditional vs Contemporary (Final)

   Karlo Mila: Four Poems and Sione's Wedding ·     

            I will be looking at this piece from a traditional vs contemporary point of view. The reason I have picked this point of view is that I believe traditional values play a massive part in how many people see themselves and live their lives in today’s society. In this poem Karlo Mila mashes both tradition and contemporary elements together.

·         I believe this poem talks about a story that has been around westernized societies for far too long. Unfortunately it is a story often pushed to the side or slid to the back of most conversations.

·         Yet is one , though usually sitting underneath, hidden, that has been brought to the surface by Karlo Mila and her Poem “Four poems and Siones wedding”

·         It is the story of inequality for woman and I believe this is all part and parcel in the line

“Yea get the girls to write their own”

·         For if they were to write a story about the daily life of an islander woman, or any woman, it would be one of traditional limitations and cultural stereotypes. Yet it is a story that should be told, one that needs to be looked over and one that needs to change, for a more contemporary society to even exist.

As mentioned I will be looking at this poem from a traditional vs contemporary point of view and some of the first things I noticed about this poem is the traditional impacts given to modern day woman by traditional religion.

·         For example “Followed religiously by wooden pew penance and prayer promises.”

This is a line about half way through the poem, that talks about how island men in today’s society have more lenience when it comes to there (religious) transgressions I also think you could aim this at most men in today's society and hit the mark. Yet if men are so easily forgiven why can a woman not simply have the same treatment. I believe this partially because of the traditional views of Christianity. As we have seen through-out this course the Christian missionary movement swept through the islands and had a large impact on many of them. Even today one can find parts of the bible that are full of unfortunate woman stereotyping

For example I have taken this from the bible.

1 Timothy 2:11-15

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing.

·         This biblical reference shows how parts of the bible place woman on a lower rank and creates woman (if taken seriously) into sub servants of men. I believe this traditional biblical view has no place in today’s contemporary world. Though I’m not saying Karlo Mila or myself believe religion as something that needs to be removed from society, I do believe this poem lie myself is against the all too common religious and traditional cultural inequality for woman.

·         So does the tradition of religion bare some of the blame when it comes to the inequality of Woman? Yes absolutely and I also think the words used directly after “Yeah, get the girls to write their own” are valuable.

      Valuable because they speak of how traditional values for woman are not a laughing matter.

·       The stanza goes

" But with all due respect to Oscar, it’s just not gonna be a comedy, if you know what I’m saying"

     I believe what Karlo Mila is saying is a lot more than the words original tell us. She uses the name Oscar Knightly, speaking directly to him thus bringing all I have spoken about into the contemporary realm.

Another piece of the poem that I believe carries a traditional meaning yet is used in a contemporary way is the words used in the following.

·         "Yeah, those boys know freedom, like flying foxes in the night.”

      This is used as a direct reference to the traditional flying fox which has significant cultural meaning in Samoa. The flying fox is known for its courageous and cheeky nature as Albert Wendt mentions in a speech where he talks about the traditional Tatau. The flying fox as mentioned is in regards to the tatau. I find this stanza in the poem relates so well to the paragraph in Albert Wendt’s speech where he says Quote…

“The expression said when someone has finished their tatau is Fa’alele lau Pe’a. Let your flying fox fly, show how beautiful and courageous you’ve been in enduring the pain of the tatau, parade it for all to see. The sexual connotations are very obvious.”

I believe the words “like flying foxes in the night” have that very cultural traditional significance and Karlo Mila brings this out through the contemporary idea that, men going to town on the weekend literally let their sexual flying foxes out.

·         She goes on to play with many traditional ideas, mixing them in contemporary situations, such as the two door waka / sailing streets (as in the cars cruising the streets on the weekend.)

·         She also uses the phrase “winging their way across the divide” This I believe is key and is used to show how easy it is for men to transition from the traditional religious and cultural pressures to the less weighted more contemporary life. Easy for a male but not a female.

·         So yes I agree with the phrase “Double-double standards”

·         This poem is all about how the traditional and contemporary pressures are at war with women in today’s society. Be it..

“It’s just not so fun having to be the princess” (the traditional princess) or

“Modern day mary, her afro like a halo, hands clasped in prayer” (Modern day vs traditional religion) to

“We’re ether hula or hipping it.

So I believe women are still battling for the rite to define themselves and not tradition or contemporary values of society to do so.

·       

O Tamaiti

The powerful short film ‘O Tamaiti’, by Sima Urale shows that children are seen and not heard in Pacific families. Since they are little, their opinions aren’t valued as much, because of the perception that they are still too young. Children, like any other normal adult, have emotions, too. The problem is that different people, child or adult, have a different way of saying what they want to say. In the film’s case, the children are not heard, literally and figuratively. The audience does not hear them speak, apart from their cries, which is quite significant because children tend to cry when they can’t get what they desire, and they will only stop once they do get that desire, whether it is a mere toy or something more abstract, like the affection of their parents.

This is a film that conveys strong emotions and makes people think that, yes, there are families here in New Zealand that are struggling as much as this family, if not more. Settling into a different country can be somewhat frustrating because there are a lot of things that should be taken into consideration.

First and foremost, you do not have your extended family as a kind of “back up”, for when things get rough, like when you need someone to look after your children. In the film, it is Tino who becomes the responsible guardians when his parents are away. In a way, Tino is being deprived of his childhood because he is expected to mature at a faster rate than any other children.

Secondly, language can either be a bridge or a barrier when you first move into a country. In the film, there is no indication of how long the family has been in New Zealand, however the whole film speaks for itself that they’ve just started to settle in, because of the struggle to cope. When language is a barrier, it can be difficult for people, especially the children to create his/her community of friends, because he/she will most likely feel an outcast. I can speak from experience, because, I, too, am a migrant and English has never been mother tongue. It, therefore, created a barrier against other children, since I started school halfway through the year, which means that the other children have already built their groups, and there I was trying to fit into one those “groups”.

Thirdly, moving to another country doesn’t always guarantee that the grass is going to be greener, because each country will have its positive and negative aspects. Sometimes, being in a new country brings its own trials and challenges. As seen in the film, the biggest struggle of Tino’s family is time and finance. The parents work opposite shifts and the children has to cope with these changes, especially Tino who has to step up into the world of adulthood and responsibilities.

I think the representation of Pacific families in this short film, or in any other form of media, has always been negative. For instance, news always seem to impact on this negative view, because mainly crimes are being reported about Pacific Islanders. I don’t believe that this is always the case, but because the media is such a powerful force, people perceive this to be the reality amongst Pacific Islander households. People face the media on a day to day basis, without even noticing it, from the smart phones that we always cling on to the simple posters that we see at the bus stop. 

Aaron: Sons for the Return Home (Final)

Sons for the Return Home: Text to Self.

After reading Sons for the return home the most common reaction I can imagine one having is a reflection on their identity. With the man character in constant struggle with who he is and where he belongs it is easy to come to that conscious line of thought yourself. In this blog I want to look at how some themes in Sons for the Return Home relate to me. I will be looking at text to self via three points, they are: ancestry, family and cultural practice.

I have spent the last two years living abroad and some of the countries I have visited are Scotland, Germany and Ireland. I noticed while traveling these countries that the people who lived there and have many generations belonging to the certain country, have a real sense of who they are and where they are from. It set, in my mind, a question in regards to identity. Where do I fit in New Zealand?

Ancestry

After reading Sons for the Return Home, this question started to return. I could see the same unsureness in the main character as I felt while being overseas. However, one of the differences between me and Sione was the fact he knew where his ancestry was from and though he struggled trying to identify himself (was he Samoan or a Kiwi) at least he could trace his roots back to Samoa. Where as I have a European mother and a European/Maori father, so tracing my ancestry is difficult as the word "European" is a highly generalized term when used for ethnicity and I have little contact with the outer family. In class (Pacific Reader) I have come to learn that an individual can understand themselves and where they fit in their society if they know more of where their ancestral roots flow from. So when I went searching for my family ties I was intrigued, although not surprised, to find one of the main bloodlines flows back to Scotland.

Family

In Sons for the Return Home Sione is well feed into the Samoan way of life with his family. He attended church with his them (when he was younger) and as part of being Samoan is keeping the traditions of Fa'a Samoa. I believe though he was removed more than any other of his siblings form his family Sione still had a deep connection with them. I also believe Sione considered Sarah as a big part of his family and through her traditions and cultural norms helped confuse what he held dear to him. This I can directly relate to as I also have a partner from another country and culture, while living with her and learning what traditions and cultural norms she is used to, I also had this sense of confusion. So through this example one can understand why family and those you hold dear can effect where you see yourself.

Cultural Practice

Language in Sons for the Return Home is used as tool to show immediately the cultural divide between New Zealand and Samoa. It is also one of the problems Sione's parents struggle with. As they are older when they have to start using the language in day to day living it is more difficult than it was for Sione. This is where I feel I can relate to the parents. When I moved to Germany I lived there for a year and a half, I had never tried to learn the language, this made it difficult for me to understand the culture and I felt alienated from it. Thus I had a longing to return to what I knew, English and New Zealand.


I guess in the end Sons for the Return home helped me realize that like Sione and some what Albert Wendt, it is ok to be confused on what your identity "is". I'm somewhere in between or maybe outside a Kiwi, Scotsman and a Maori, just like Sione is between or outside a Samoan and a Kiwi.