My poem/prose: Brown Blood White Skin

Identity: This is a creative response to Navigating Spaces by Grace Taylor.
I explore the idea of cultural confusion that comes with being of two different races and trying to find that comfort of being in between.

Brown Blood Whit Skin

I had never really known how it was that I had come to be,
I thought myself a puzzle, someone had taken four pieces
of four different jigsaws and tried their best to fit them with one another.
'Where I'm from everyone exists within differences, nameless'.

Colonialism, some puzzle pieces were larger then others so they took up all the space
coming from afar to take an entire race.
Marginal-ism, some were so much stronger then the others,
so they pushed everyone else away.
Egotism, some thought themselves smarter so they sat tall,
All coming together in a place that was too small.

I am Samoan, Chinese, American and German.
I am the product of colonialism.
If the history of my island were to have a face,
it would look like mine.
Huge brown eyes standing shallow amongst the white of my skin,
like my insides are trying to get out,
spread themselves smooth over my fare complexion.
'Where I'm from, I am the brownest of the white and the whitest of the brown'.

I fight inside that messy in-between
of being proud and being confused.
Of being home but standing outside.
To embrace the thick air that my Samoan blood revels in,
 or to feel the sting of frost that my European pigments adore.
'Uncertain in my uncertainty, beautiful in my uncomfortable, all for you on display.
Where I'm from, a relatives twelve years in the meeting, the furthest from me, yet the the identity most assigned to me that colonised my other half. Irony smiles'.

I have many nations residing in my single body,
though there is no place for me in any one of them.
There is a solid place for me in all of them.
You can't separate your fingers from your hand,
or your toes from your feet without being disabled in some way.
As you can't separate one culture from the other within you,for  the latter will suffer.
You can't try to belong to only one, if you truly belong to many.
You must embrace them all.
You were born with perfectly formed hands and feet, be thankful.
You born with an interesting blend of flavours, sour spicy salty and sweet.
Be thankful.
'Where I'm from I am always half, but half for me means full. I am a race within a race'.

Where I live now, mirrors who I am inside.
This land is of the world, but the world is also in this land.
A kaleidoscope of colour and countless structures of varying facial features.
Beautiful.
Different tongues spoken, different greetings, different embraces.
But all live together in a long great land.
Whole
God of nations at thy feet, I look into the ground and see my face.
Autearoa, this is where we all come together.
Where all my cultures run through the streets like they run through my veins.
One.
'Where I am from, the language of indigenous licks every ear. And culture is not a tourist attraction, 
it-just-is. Where I'e from breaths the largest population of pacific people away from their home land, yet we can trace bloodlines two generations back... Where I am from is always my future, because I am not one, I am of a people'.

I am Samaon, Chinese, American and German, but I was born in New Zealand.
This is where I come from and where I am from.
'Where I'm from you've gotta know where you're from. Because no-one else will'.

The Bush Kanaka Speaks

Kumalau Tawali

‘The Bush Kanaka Speaks’ is a poem published in 1972 by author Kamalau Tawali, a former graduate of the University of Papua New Guinea and current Director of the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies.

What is most evident within the text are the power structures. White men essentially forcing their culture onto the indigenous peoples or the bush kanaka, who are resisting these forces with not much success. Particularly in the beginning of the text we can see that the post colonial literature has been given the indigenous perspective. These ‘white men’ are getting themselves stressed out and yelling and screaming at the indigenous men.

“The kiap shouts at us

forcing the veins to stand out in his neck

nearly forcing the excreta out of his bottom”

These lines make it clear that there is some kind of superior or dominant attitude coming from the white people. Even though it seems like this man who is talking within the poem doesn't have a very high opinion of himself, he is still under this control, he is still working under this white kiap. This idea comes up again and again within the literature, the superior/inferior attitude where the kiap is essentially saying that these people are living in primitive and underdeveloped places that are therefore less than.

“He says: you are dirty”

“He says we live in dirty rubbish houses”

“He says: you’ll get sick”

It conveys this message or idea that the white kiap are so much more obsessed with hygiene and sickness and it’s all sort of looking down at another person’s way of living.

“Haven’t I eaten such food all my life,

And I haven’t died yet?

Maybe his stomach is tender like a child’s

born yesterday. I’m sure he couldn't

eat our food without getting sick.” 

Saved

Saved

‘Saved’ is a poem written by Jon Jonassen. He is a writer born on Rarotonga, Cook Islands in 1949 and he is educated in Cook Islands, New Zealand and Hawaii. The poem is written in plainspoken English and includes a lot of sarcastic language and satire. The plot is about the British and New Zealand colonization of the Cook Islands, and the locals’ perspective on it.

            The poem begins with: “God save the Queen, at last the British have come”. This is a satirical reference to the national anthem of Great Britain and to the establishment of Rarotonga, later Cook Islands, as a British protectorate in 1888. The Jack is mentioned and it says it “was flown by Ariki Nui Makea”. It’s probably a play on words, referring to the British flag, which is called the Union Jack. Ariki Nui Makea means the queen of Nui Makea, which was a chiefdom on Rarotonga. That sentence also refers to the fact that a chiefess on Rarotonga encouraged the British to make the island a British protectorate. The reason for this becomes clear in the last sentence of the first paragraph: “in fear of the French”. They were afraid of French expansionism in the area.

            In the second paragraph the satire continues with: “Praise them Kiwi men”. It refers to New Zealand’s annexation of Rarotonga in 1900. The writer also mentions the name change that took place in 1893 to Cook Islands. It is written in a way which implies that the inhabitants of the islands weren’t included in that decision: ”to lump them all together, and call them Cook Islands”. It’s a valid argument since the decision to annex the islands was taken in the New Zealand parliament and not on the Cook Islands. In the last paragraph the writer states his pity for the locals’ position: “sorry for the locals who never had a say”. Thereafter he continues to express how the colonists only used the locals as a bargaining chip.

The poem is an example of post-colonial literature that tries to write back to the center, by putting the feelings and perspective of the locals in the center of the discussion. It tries to explain how the colonization felt for the locals of the Cook Islands. From the locals’ perspective it describes that the colonists made the decisions about their country with total disregard for what they wanted. That is a well-founded argument and I would continue it by claiming that the locals were very much marginalized in their own country. One could argue that the writer agrees by looking at the last sentences, where he sarcastically states that the locals were only “a card on the table, useful when needed”. It is important to point out that this is how the colonist looked at the locals, and probably not how the writer looks at them. On the one hand I doubt that he considers them so passive since that is a typical Eurocentric view. On the other hand it is possible that the writer feels that the locals were helpless to do anything. If that’s the fact it shows how mental colonization works, even after colonialism is over. The belief that one group is considered better and stronger than themselves doesn’t disappear overnight, and could still affect the mindset of the writer.