Seminar brief 2 (Kinapped by Ruperake Pataia and A book and a pen by Vaine Rasmussen)

We have chosen these two poems for my seminar because I see quite a few of similarities between them, especially in the way authors express their feelings about the Western education that they received when they were young, which changed the way they see the world as well as identified themselves. Even though Ruperake and Vaine came from two different countries (one from Samoa and one from the Cook Islands), the two nations both experienced the Western colonialism and somehow they lost a part of their original cultures and the two authors realized how much they have missed about their own cultures, about what they should have learnt about when they were young. 

In “A book and a pen”, Vaine told the readers his story as he was given “a book and a pen” when he was young and then later on he was given “a piece of paper” and then “another piece of paper”. Interestingly, in “Kidnapped”, Rupetake also called his certificate “a piece of paper/to decorate my walls”. We can see a sense of guilt here as the two authors realize that while they were at the Western educational institutions to learn the Western culture and to get the Western certificates, they were also gradually missing learning their own cultures “..and I grew up at last/ Realising I had missed a lot”. These two men find themselves caught in the middle as they grew up with the Western language, education and culture surrounding them but deep inside, they still try to find the way to come back to their own origins. They know that they have missed a lot, “a pe’e/A legend, a song/ And a language to master”. 

In my seminar, I’m doing the part of “text-to-self”, in which I’ll be presenting my point of view about the two poems and how I relate to the texts. Coming from a country which used to be colonised by French, I have learnt quite a lot about the French colonialism in the history classes when I was at school and I also listened to stories told by old people, who actually experienced their adolescent years under the strong influences of French language and culture. Similar to Ruperake, they also “grew whiter and whiter” as they spoke French, adopted the French way of thinking, went to au theatre (the theatre), etc. but at the same time, Vietnamese culture, language, cuisine, traditional arts become less concerned. Luckily, I was born in the time that my country have gained its own independence and I was brought up in the environment that people only spoke Vietnamese, which made me really proud because I could confidently say that my Vietnamese is excellent. To me, the certificates I have from any Western institutions are not pieces of paper to decorate my walls but they’re the proofs that I’ve been experiencing another educational system, exploring other cultures and it truly opens my world and changes my perspectives. It gives me the opportunities to see myself and to look back to my own culture and see it with a different view. It’s absolutely an amazing thing!