270 the Contemporary Pacific • 17:1 (2005) Ping-Ann

270 the contemporary pacific • 17:1 (2005) practices—however ancient or new- In the final scene, the narrator fangled—is glossed over in this focus reiterates the film’s title: “The old on cloth production activities, which women say, ‘Kuo hina ‘e hiapo’” today are the domain of commoner (The mulberry is ripe and ready for women. harvest). She emphasizes a genera- While the film does mention the tional rift by stating that younger increasing global relevance of Tongan people are rarely heard using this barkcloth, which is responsible for a saying. The message of generational large part of the demand for Tongan tensions resonates, echoing the senti- ngatu and the consequent depletion ments of an older kautaha woman of plant raw materials, it elides the who confidently states that ngatu- underlying topic of Tongans’ eco- making “will never end in this land” nomic dependence on overseas-based and a younger woman who says, “It Tongans. In order to contextualize seems like the younger generation will Tongan modernity, the filmmakers forget.” Thus the filmmakers provide might have explained that Tonga has a well-balanced presentation of these been a Christian nation with a top- differing opinions, even as the film down motivation toward national ends on a positive note: “Like the modernization for almost 200 years. beating of a heart as long as the beat- This would also have provided some ing of tutu can be heard . the cul- context for the prayers and hymns ture and traditions of Tonga will live that women say continually through- on.” I commend the filmmakers for out the film. I do, however, acknowl- not attempting to make any firm edge that a major difficulty in nar- predictions about the future of ngatu rative history is that it is entirely and ngatu-making and for letting the possible to lose important context women, and their cloth, speak for available from other sources—history themselves. books, elite Tongans, diasporic Ton- ping-ann addo gans. A map or the geographical California College of the Arts coordinates of the Kingdom of Tonga (or both) would also have been help- ful in situating Tonga geographically *** and historically in the world. The Songmaker’s Chair, a play by The film’s penultimate scene is Albert Wendt. Directed by Nathaniel touching and visually impressive, Lees, Auckland Theatre Company, panning outward from its focus on Maidment Theater, Auckland, an elderly Tongan noblewoman, as 11–27 September 2003. she says a Christian prayer, to reveal several large ngatu spread outdoors The world premier of The Song- on the ground before her. Her prayer maker’s Chair played to sold-out is that “Tongan will remain for audiences in September 2003 at the Tongans . so that Tonga may Maidment Theatre in Auckland. In continue to be Tonga . lest we the program, Robert Nash called it an stray in the face of progress. “evocative, delightful work that only may we not be lost.” New Zealand can produce; a play book and media reviews 271 that brilliantly celebrates the wonder- I came to Aotearoa in 1952 I have fully diverse Pacific migration to New observed and written poetry and Zealand and how it has enriched our fiction about the Samoan and Pacific cultures.” After it was written by migrant experience. This play is my Wendt in 1996, and given two well- latest attempt to encapsulate that and received rehearsed readings (the first to celebrate the lives of those coura- at Downstage in Wellington in 1997 geous migrant families who have and the second at the Auckland made Auckland and Aotearoa their Writer’s Festival in 2001), it was home. It is also in gratitude to the totally appropriate that the play was tangata whenua who welcomed us produced by the Auckland Theatre into their home. Like the Peseola Company as part of the first Auck- family, our journeys have been from land Festival. The company’s educa- our ancient atua and pasts to the new tion unit also brought the play alive fusion and mix and Rap that is now for local schools by offering an oppor- Aotearoa and Auckland. We have tunity for secondary drama students added to and continue to change from throughout Auckland to experi- that extraordinary fusion, the heart ence in-school workshops, matinee of which is still Maori and of Moana performances, and forums. nui a kiwa [Great seas of the Pacific, On the surface, the play is about or the peoples of the Pacific residing the migrant Peseola family and the in New Zealand].” problems they face fitting into a new The play tells of a Samoan family, community. But it is much more than Aiga Sa-Peseola, who have been in that. As Wendt says in the program: Auckland since the 1950s. To survive “This play began many years ago in and adapt to New Zealand, they have Samoa as an image of an old man, over three generations intermarried my father sitting in his favourite chair with Maori and Pakeha and have beside a large radio: a haunting image developed what they refer to as the that refused to go away! I brought it “Peseola way.” Central to the “Peseola with me to Auckland in 1988. From way” is the magnificent Polynesian that year until I wrote the first full exploration and settlement of the version of the play in 1996, I saw a Pacific and a song-making tradition lot of Pakeha, Maori and Pacific plays which Peseola Olaga, the patriarch of —a truly magnificent and dynamic the family (played by Nathaniel Lees), development in our country’s theatre has inherited from his father. At the that continues today. I acknowledge heart of the play is the love between my debt to such playwrights as Harry Peseola Olaga and his wife Malaga Dansey, John Kneubuhl, Selwyn (played by Ana Tuigamala) and how Muru, Vincent O’Sullivan, Briar they have struggled to give their chil- Grace-Smith, Hone Kouka, Oscar dren a good life in Aotearoa. Theirs is Kightley, Makerita Urale, Toa Fraser, the Peseola Way: defiant, honest, and Jacob Rajan, Vilsoni Hereniko, unflinching even in the face of death. Victoria Kneubuhl and others. I was For one hour and fifty minutes (the absolutely taken by those plays—and play is continuous with no interval) I learnt much from them. Since the audience is part of an intimate 272 the contemporary pacific • 17:1 (2005) journey in which we witness Pese and fully interwoven throughout the play Malaga in their twilight years, engag- in the music, the dance, the humor, ing with different family members— as well as the dialogue that is used to sons, daughters, Palagi and Maori explore ancient Samoan beliefs and in-laws, friends—in what would seem genealogies and to examine ways they normal aiga (family) conversations are worked out in a new time and and events, often displaying the cross- place. Thus the clever and under- cultural misunderstandings, confusion, standable use of “Samoan English,” anger, and amusement that surround with a heavy dose of Samoan dia- the tensions and “playing out” of logue, was skillfully woven into the faasamoa (Samoan way of life) in script and made comprehensible for migrant situations. During these (and monolingual English-speakers through often accompanied by intellectualized the accompanying action. and verbalized thoughts), secrets are The cast of actors ranged from revealed, reconciled, and dealt with. novice to extremely experienced, with What is extraordinary about this superb and riveting performances by play is that interwoven with this is the Nathaniel Lees and Ana Tuigamala infusion of the unknown, mysterious, (her theatrical debut), and outstand- and metaphysical world of death in ing audiovisual design (Sima Urale) which Peseola realizes his human and direction (Nathaniel Lees and frailty and mortality, evidenced by Nancy Brunning). dreams and the presence of aitu Having strongly supported moves (spirits). By the end of the play he toward building the Fale Pasifika reconciles death and this journey, and Complex at the University of Auck- accepts and prepares himself for the land (a beautiful addition to the archi- inevitable. Peseola’s love and fascina- tecture of the Auckland city campus), tion for his “chair” mirrors the cen- Albert Wendt has been appointed for trality of the aiga and faasamoa values two years to an endowed chair, the that are dominant themes in the play. Citizens Chair in English Literature Another perhaps unresolved theme at the University of Hawai‘i. In mid- alluded to is the diluted Samoan iden- 2004, Wendt was awarded the presti- tities of Samoan children born and gious Nikkei Asia Award. This prize raised in New Zealand, interestingly is given annually by a Japanese news- referred to by Peseola as “the lost paper for regional growth, science, generation.” and culture, and recognizes Professor Nathaniel Lees, director and lead- Wendt’s works, which “introduce the ing actor in The Songmaker’s Chair, is traditions and cultures of Samoa and not only a well-known and respected other Pacific Island nations, previ- actor and director, but he is also ously only passed down orally, in Wendt’s cousin, which gives a special plain yet lyrical English for readers dimension to his interpretation of around the world” (New Zealand the play. Herald, 24 May 2004; announced The “new fusion and mix” that is in September 2003 in the University evidenced by the fifty-year history of News 33 [8]:3). We celebrate The Samoans in New Zealand is success- Songmaker’s Chair with Wendt, as book and media reviews 273 an acknowledgement and honoring duction as art, Paradise Now? Con- of his remarkable achievements as temporary Art from the Pacific— Pacific novelist, poet, artist, and play- thoughtfully curated by Melissa Chiu, wright extraordinaire! herself an Australian—has a very dif- Ia manuia le tapuaiga! (Blessed are ferent, political and conceptual edge.

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