2016: Half time

Polyponderer has been off the grid and sincerely apologises for the hiatus.

It has taken me two weeks to sit down in front of my laptop to finally try and write something. Not because I’ve run out of words – something would be terribly wrong with the world the day I run out of things to say haha – but because I just don’t know where to start. So we’ll just start from what’s happened since I went AWOL on blogging.

Post holiday blues (January-February)

You know that borderline depressing mode you fall into when you’ve returned from a holiday? Where your only motivation to get your ass out of bed is to save up for your next holiday? And your phone battery is dying three hours into the business day because you’re constantly flicking through your facebook statuses, instagram posts and emailing your family and loved ones back in Samoa reminiscing about your time spent there? Yes my holiday blues went on for far too long.  I couldn’t shake it, I missed Samoa way too much, missed my family and my grandma back in New Zealand.

What hit me the most was when God called my dear Great Aunt to join Him in heaven in mid-February a month after we had gotten back from Samoa. I spent almost the entirety of my 17 days in Samoa in my dad’s beautiful home village of Leauva’a with my dad’s family and my beautiful Great Aunt Eti (Lord rest her beautiful soul). Growing up dad’s mum resided in New Zealand so for the most part dad’s aunties who resisded here in Melbourne played the role of our paternal grandmothers. Each morning in Samoa I’d wake up to my Nana Eti’s early morning prayers, I’d ask this charismatic woman to tell me stories of my dad’s upbringing and life in Leauva’a and she’d tell me to hurry up and get a husband if not to become a nun lol.

When I was woken up on a Saturday morning at 8am by my mum in February and told the news I completely broke down and wanted nothing more than to be back in Samoa. For starters, I cried grateful to God that I got to spend time with her the month before He called her home, secondly because I had promised to take her to bingo – which I HATE BINGO because I’m such a sore loser when I don’t win money lol – but on the most part my motivation since returning from Samoa was to work hard for my family and loved ones so we could God willing always have an annual trip back to the Motherland. And so post holiday blues turned into tears of grief but God called a beautiful woman to His Kingdom.

2015 wasn’t my year as I wrote last year (Dear 2015, thank for the curveball) and I felt upon my return back to Melboring that I could work towards a new positivity. I didn’t question God but I questioned where I was going to go, because I still didn’t think that I had one hundred per cent found where I was supposed to be nor did I have any ounce how I was going to get somewhere.  To top things off I turned 23 a few days after that and it just felt soooooo shit (pardon my language). I was thankful for another year, but here I was a graduate, passionate about something which I had still yet to do ANYTHING with and worked in a field that was completely irrelevant to what I had always intended on pursuing.

And so my fortress of solitude came up strong, until God decided to really kick things into gear for me with a text message from my AMAZING sister girl/The Lost Coconut Rita Seumanutafa.

Birth of Pacific Island Creative Arts Australia (PICAA)

It is so cliche but the timing of Rita’s message to me could not have come at such a better time. Rita had informed me in January (during my post holiday blues phase lol) that she had founded a new organisation Pacific Island Creative Arts Australia (PICAA) for Pasefika arts to be showcased within the community and I WAS SO BLOODY EXCITED!!!! FYI we’re on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram @PICAAInc

In March Rita had messaged me if I was eager to come on board and with a HELL YEAH we had our first NINE HOUR meeting from 10pm on a Friday night until 7am the following morning. With it we got right into the nitty gritty didn’t waste any time and started PICAA’s very first project: PASEFIKA VITORIA CHOIR.

The Pasefika Vitoria choir was formed in April 2016 and it’s primary objective for Pasefika peoples to unite as one and showcase their talents through music as a choir group. The Pasefika Vitoria Choir kickstarted PICAA’s projects this year with their performance at The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) on June 11th 2016 for the Contemporary Pacific Art & Community Day. AND IT WAS AMAZING!

And that was only the beginning of PICAA’s projects….

“Amataga o le alofa” 

During our 9hr meeting in March, Rita and I went through potential projects one that came up was the Emerge Festival hosted by Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV). I remember nodding my head saying “yeah that sounds awesome” until Rita said “We can perform a Samoan theatre play and you can write the script.” *stares blankly* 

It took me a moment because at first I thought I heard her wrong given it was 2am on a Saturday morning (yes I was sober lol) and I wasn’t sure if she was asking if I was going to write a Samoan play to be performed for the first time in Melbourne.  8 years of being passionate about making Samoa’s marks in the film and theatre world in Australia and here it was at 2am in the middle of a meeting with a woman who had since I had met her from day one kept me motivated to get out there and showcase my beautiful Samoan culture as she does so on a daily basis through her passion of music.

Two weeks later, one unsatisfied writer with script/draft one, a meeting with Amataga o le alofa director my dear brother Steve Tafea and an ALL NIGHTER writing a new script (which was sooooooo much better than my first one) and director, writer, musical director (Rita), choreographers Filomena Wairasi & Victor Vitaliano from Nesian Pearl & Tama Tatau, costume designer Melesete Vaasili  and two of our actors Sanele Save & Litia Huch kick-started what was going to be an intense six weeks of dance rehearsals, choir practices, acting masterclasses and an AWESOME theatre family had merged. Six actors (Sanele Savea, Litia Huch, Tavai Faasavalu, Asalemo Tofete, Patrick Tusa & Danny Wairasi), two dance groups Nesian Pearl & Tama Tatau, The Melbourne Samoan choir, guitarist, two drummers, lots of food and support from family and friends and we were in production mode.

June 21 was the big day and leading up to the night the lights went up I was being a drama queen yes there’s an ironic pun somewhere there lol.

I was nervous because despite having written plays and scripts before and watching them come to life at Lotu Tamaiti or during uni projects this is something talented actors, singers, dancers, choregraphers, musicians, directors, volunteers, families and supporters have come to bring to life. The idea that words on paper can bring people together to showcase their talents to mould together a story that aimed to put these artists’ Samoan cultural identity on stage is what the idea behind PICAA was founded on and my only prayer to God leading up to the night of production was that we were able to do that.

Show night.  The Richmond Theatrette was extremely warm that night, I cried the entirety of the show as if I was witnessing it for the first time.

Every single person who had taken part; the director who envisioned words on paper into action, the dancers whose movements personified Samoa’s creation myth, melodious singers who serenaded everyone with Samoan classics, the patient and skillful musicians, and the gifted actors who portrayed their characters impeccably – YOU are the reason the audience were on their feet at the end of the show singing  “Ua fa’afetai ua malie mata e va’ai”. June 21, The Richmond Theatrette witnessed the Pacific Islander Arts movement that has been marked here in Melbourne, and it’s only just beginning! (Keep an eye on PICAA’s facebook & twitter pages)

Finally Pacific Islanders have a platform to turn to help them exhibit their art through PICAA.

Glory goes to God and as Polyponderer heads to the second half of the year – and the end of this long as post lol – I’m ready to work and end 2016 with a bang. With an awesome team, a supportive network of family of friends and God at the forefront here is to the remainder of 2016.

Polyponderer.