Have been super busy this past week with an English essay which I will be publishing an extract from below. It is for a paper 'Te Torino: Maori and Pacific Literature' that I am completing this year. In examining indigenous literature we have focused in particular on traditional ways of knowing, and the trope of the spiral (Te Torino) in knowledge within a Pasifika context. We should all be familiar with this idea if you're lucky enough to have grown up in New Zealand- the koru, a fern frond unfolding, symbolic of new life and the constant cycle of life and death. We were asked to analyse a poem from the anthology "Whetu Moana" (I definitely recommend it if poetry is your thing) and share it somewhere public. I chose to analyse Te One-Roa-a-Tohe, a poem by Albert Wendt.
Please forgive me for my digression from my self-indulgent rantings... take some time and have a read, learn something new from my own spiraling writing!
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Close Reading of Albert Wendt's Te One-Roa-a-Tohe
Albert Wendt is one of the most prominent figures in Pacific (Oceanic) Literature. As a writer of novels, short stories and poetry, Wendt has been a founding father in the emergence, growth and continuing development of Oceanic Literature as a genre, seeking to challenge Western stereotypes of the Pacific and explore the epistemologies and histories of the Pacific through the art of storytelling (Sharrad). Though born in Samoa and educated in New Zealand, Wendt considers himself a dual citizen of both New Zealand Aotearoa and Samoa in both a physical and spiritual sense (TVNZ). The poem Te One-Roa-a-Tohe (translates as: The Long Beach of Tohe and is more commonly known as Ninety Mile Beach) (David) is an example of Wendt’s writing that features New Zealand and Samoa. This poem is set in two places of spiritual significance; Cape Reinga, New Zealand and Falealupo, Samoa where the spirits of the dead depart for the afterlife in the respective cultural mythologies. While initially the poem appears to consider the concept of death alone, a more comprehensive analysis reveals a narrative that enforces and celebrates mythology and non European epistemologies as well as undermining the effects of Colonialism. Most evident in the work is the connectedness of an Oceanic epistemology beyond the living and the dead- between the people of the Pacific and the Sea; the intrinsic relationship with nature and connections to the present and the past, and between cultures themselves.
The sea has always been a place of great significance to Oceanic peoples as acknowledged in Whetu Moana (Albert Wendt). In the Pacific, it was the ocean that both separated and united the region; peoples separated by water but able to voyage in canoes to engage with each other. It is unsurprising that given its central role in Pacific life, the Ocean features heavily in the mythology of Pacific. In this poem, the Ocean plays a central role, with coastal regions as settings of the work. In New Zealand, Wendt locates himself at Reinga, at the Northern most point of Te One-Roa-a-Tohe where it is believed that the Maori spirits of the dead depart their earthly life and return to the mythical Hawaiki through an ocean voyage. The Samoan equivalent of Reinga is located at the Western most point of Savaii known as Falealupo (more specifically, Tufutafoe) (Loli) . Here, the spirits of the dead bathe as the sun sets before diving into the ocean searching for Pulotu- the home of the spirits. Death is not the end or stillness that is manifested in more traditional European perspectives; because of the cyclic approach to existence that is the spiral- Te Torino, within a Pacific centred narrative, motion is perpetual.
Throughout the poem the references to the sea stand not only to embody the notions of journeying but also reflect the connection in traditional belief systems between people and nature. The image of the Ocean is complimented by references to the sky and the sun, flax, pohutukawa trees, lava paths and caves that are woven together creating rich imagery reinforcing connections between nature, mythology and mankind. The language used personifies the spirits as they move through nature showing the bond, throughout the cycle of life and death, of Maori to nature. Moving to Samoa, the dead bathe in naturally formed rock-pools before walking the lava path (again naturally formed) to dive for Pulotu. The natural features of the land act as markers on the spiritual journey to the afterlife for the people, and the geographical location- Falealupo, is linked to a pre-Christian deity, Nafanua.
Emphasis on the natural world not only illustrates the intertwining of nature with Pacific people, but also enables the juxtaposition of nature with man-made constructs (both literal and ideological) representing the European imposition in indigenous places. Wendt’s tone challenges the Colonial past and is evident in the poem as a whole. The indigenous words for geographical locations and mythical elements of the narrative are used throughout the stanza's. The Colonial influence in New Zealand and Samoa is undermined by Wendt’s determination to reflect the sacredness of the mythology and these places for the indigenous people in the indigenous tongue rather than in the language of Colonisation.
The poem Te One-Roa-a-Tohe is thus not simply a narrative about the Dead, it is a poem that seeks to explore the sub-narratives within Death that connect it to life, nature, journeying, mythology, past present and future generations in an uniquely Polynesian way. In a post-Colonial context (for Samoa at least) Wendt celebrates the resilience of traditional epistemologies and rhetoric and though Aotearoa still exists as a colonised state the continuing renaissance of Maori culture signals this same resilience present here. As the Literary genealogy of Oceania continues to grow, Wendt attempts to propagate a tradition that looks back as it moves forward; acknowledging the traditional histories from which Pacific narratives stem and moving into a modern world where hybridity, technology and constant cultural flux will continue to influence Pasifika writing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri, Robert Sullivan, ed. Whetu Moana; Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2003. Print.
David, Kelvin. "Labour Mp Welcomes Beach Name Change." New Zealand Labour Party website, 2010. Print.
Loli, Mata. "Clarification of Tufutafoe and Falealupo." Ed. Carpenter, Judeena. Auckland, 2010. Print.
Sharrad, Paul. Albert Webdt and Pacific Literature; Circling the Void. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2003. Print.
Nz Festival: The New Oceania. 2006. (NZ), Point of View Productions.
Wendt, Albert. "Tatauing the Post-Colonial Body." SPAN 62 December (2009): 83-101. Print
---. "Towards a New Oceania." MANA 1 1 (1976): 49-60. Print.
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