New Hebrides / Niuhebridis

Albert Leomala

Immediately we can see how English has influenced the language developed and used by Albert Leomala in this poem. Both the indigenous and the English versions of the poem start with the line “niuhebridis niuhebridis”, which is an indigenous term from Vanuatu. When looking at the second line in the first stanza the author says “you drink wine”, “yu tring waen” and then “and you drink whisky”, “mo yu tring wiski”. The similarities between both versions of the text are undeniable; however this English influence is evident in some words more than others. For example “who’s gonna eat them” and “hu bambae i kakae frok”, it almost impossible to distinguish any English within the indigenous terms.

Albert uses a great deal of imagery in this poem and I think it works well with the language to reference some of the influences of colonisation, such as alcohol. In the first stanza Albert states “you drink wine and you drink whisky but you hate kava” and following this in the second stanza “for they want to plant kava on your land and they want you to drink it”. It seems as though Albert is countering the use of the term ‘whisky’ by mentioning the local and culturally important drink of choice ‘kava’. The way in which he references the term kava within each stanza gives us the impression that the drink has so much more significance to both him and the people of the pacific beyond its intoxicating abilities.

Communicated throughout the poem is a sense of loss. “you have plenty of children but you hate them”, to me this is an extremely powerful, but also very sad line. It contrasts well with the line “because of all your black children ... drink it”, as for me it implies that there is this feeling among the indigenous people that there is a loss or a wanting to go back to something that they are missing that was before. In the third stanza Albert states “i wasn’t born in rhine but in kolo”. This line conveys that Albert is unable to relate to the colonial culture and that the pacific and its people are grieving. “come back to the black child he’s patiently waiting for you” waiting in a sense that these people will always be there. 

Identity

I am born in a British hospital

To a Kiwi mum

To a British dad

I rely

I cry

I want

The only identity I have is gender

I am just a baby like all the rest

I am born as a blank canvas

Five years later I am living in a West Auckland suburb

A ‘westie’ as they say

I have changed

I have hair

Blue eyes

I still need

Or do I just want?

I can read

I can talk

I have begun to become myself

My culture is still the same

When I am ten

I am nasty

At ten I am rude

My identity is trying to come through

It does not care if I am Kiwi

It does not care if I am British

All it wants is me

At fifteen I change

My body

My mind

My intentions

Everything changes

I struggled with my character

Who I am

Who I am to become

At twenty my identity is my existence today

It does not care about tomorrow

It does not care what defines my character

My smile

My sneer

My laugh

It does not care what defines my knowledge

My fears

My hopes

My Birthplace

My canvas is no longer blank

I still have a long way to go

Five years from now

Who will I be?

What will I be?

Because I still don’t know 

Identity

                                              Identity
      
In the poem "Looking thru Those Eyeholes", I think the author is trying express the view that
one's identity is a thing that will not change, it is one's origin, it is the "reality". In this poem, the young artist left his village at very early age, and he finally find his identity at his village within his culture rather than in the big world he had been to in the past.

I can understand the process of trying to find one's identity. Just as I learnt in class, identity is consist of many aspect. For example, I am a Chinese, so my identity is not just about that I have black hair and yellow skin. Identity is more about the value of one society, how people of one race think in terms of different issues in the world. For example, in China, we believe that lovers are organised by one god because we have this ancient myth about one god living in the moon who beings girls and boys together to be lovers. There is a social context behind our ways of thinking.I am sure the author of this poem also has his culture, and has a context behind his ways of thinking. It is through these thinkings, people form their identity. Therefore if one day I want to define my self properly, I will go to seek myself in my Chinese culture, not the New Zealand culture. Just as this artist in the poem, the author make his find his identity at his village.

Family is an important notion in the sense of identity, family is a place that an identity is passed on. So in this funeral setting in the poem, the identity has been passed from the dead father to the young artist. The mask made of half of the father's skull is a metaphor that the artist finds his own identity and take his identity with him in his life.








                                      















                      
                   
                      

Identity

"I'm a theorizing PI
I'm a strategising PI
I'm a published in a peer reviewed journal PI"

But at the same time

"I'm a slot machine PI
I'm a lotto queen PI
I'm tote-ticket church bingo TAB PI"

Does it make sense? It doesn't seem logical but it's the way how things work, the way how Selina Tusitala Marsh sees herself and her own identity.

I was deeply impressed by her poem "Fast talkin' PI", in which she expresses her own feelings and tells people about who she is. To me, Selina has been successfully identified herself, not just in one but in different aspects and she's totally proud of it.

"I'm an independent PI
I'm a flag-raisin' PI
I'm a fa'alavelave lovin' givin' livin' PI"

And

"I'm a lazy PI
I'm a p-crazy PI
I'm a hard drinkin' hard speakin' where my eggs? PI"

Selina considers herself lazy, p-crazy, hard drinking but then she's also independent and a caring living person. That's the thing I love about the poem. It's straight and honest. There's no metaphor in it but still, I can see an imperfect yet loving person and that's what Selina wanted to show people about who she is. The phrase "I am", which is repeatedly used at the beginning of every sentence throughout the poem, emphasizes her confidence about revealing her real personality, her real self-reflection.

She identifies herself by the way she looks

"I'm a red-lipsticked PI
I'm a big-haired PI
a multi-coloured, stilhouetted fafafine PI"

The way she acts

" I'm a dub dub dub PI
I'm a bebo PI
I'm a good lookin', face bookin' hookin' up PI"

The way she expresses her feelings

"I'm a crying PI
I'm a laugh too loud PI
I'm a my jandal your mouf derek-wannabe PI"

She also sees herself "a lover PI", "a mama PI", "a breast-feed till they tell you I'm done now! PI".
However, the poem is not only about Selina. She's a woman. She's a human. And she's also a representative for her country, her peoples. That's why:

"I'm a BA PI
I'm a MA PI
I'm a PhD, BCOM, LLB, MD PI

I'm a bi PI
I'm a gay PI
I'm a cross-gendered, soul-blended, mascara'd PI"

Selina is speaking for everybody, every single person in her community. She understands her background and she's proud to be one of them, to be a PI.
Identity, to me, is no only about the features on your face. It's also about how you see yourself among people. It's about how you feel about the place where you come from, about the environment you was brought up in and about the culture you was initially exposed to. And Selina has conveyed the message about her identity powerfully her writing.
"I know how to be in this world
I know how to feed in its water
I know how to read the stars and sea-birds
I know how to live off poetry
I know how to give it away"
And she does give it away, with all her emotions, her feelings and her love for her culture. And that's Selina - a fast talkin' PI.

My poem

It seemed so unfamiliar to me

Getting to know all the colonialism concepts

And how Europeans people came to carry out their civilizing mission

I found it hard

To understand

To feel

To sympathize

With the people who lived in their own countries

But cannot keep their cultures, their ways of living to pass to their grandchildren

…

And I read the poems

“The Bush Kanaka Speaks”

“Kidnapped”

“A book and a pen”

I recalled stories that my Grandma once told me

About the time when she was my age now

And my country was invaded and became a French colony

Yes, I’m a girl who comes from a small country in the Indochina

That’s how those French colonists called our land

They called us yellow

They called us uncivilized 

They made my people work hard till they died

They were just like the ol les man

In Kumalau’s poem

Sitting on a soft chair and doing nothing

They taught French at school

They built houses with French architecture

They brought to my country their French food that they thought one of the best foods in the world

…

And I was woken up

I realized how different my life would be if those white people never came to my country

I would perhaps be wearing different clothes

Maybe our beautiful traditional costumes

I rarely wear them

Only because I think modern dresses are cool and more convenient

I never realized how beautiful my Grandma looked when she was my age and she had her charming traditional dresses on

I would perhaps go to different schools

Where they teach me the old writing script

A book and a pen

People gave me

I may get a piece of paper called a BA

And another piece of paper called an MA

But I would never get to know well

About my country’s literature hundred years ago

…

I realized

That I had missed a lot

That I should have known more about our own culture

That I should have learnt more about our history

That I should have been more proud of our country, our people

I realized

That I’d never want to be a person with no home

No root

No place to come back

I realized

That how much I love my home land

And how much I want to come back

To see all the endless green rice fields

To feel the spring air

To touch my soil

And to find my soul

At last…

Week1-2 reading

The post-colonial Oceanic literature touches me in its own, unique ways. Through those poem, there are colonial history behind it, and the deeply hurt hearts behind it. That is why lots of these poems have anger in them, these pacific writers are mourning about their culture which is being damaged by Europeans. Just as Wendt mentions in his article that the most outstanding feature defining a literature is post-colonial is that there are thoughts in this literature of wanting to be independent, against stereotyping in the colonial literature. Those Pacific writers are trying to explaining their own culture to their own people, to later generations of Pacific nations.

I feel sad about all these. I can feel the deep love towards their Pacific land behind the angry voices in those poems. In the poem <The Bush Kanaka Speaks>, the author mentioned their normal daily way of living, those ways are laughed by the Europeans but loved by the author. The author wants to shout, to tell all the pacific people that pacific way of living is the thing to be proud of, pacific culture is independent and precious.