Already I've given a sneak preview to 'Rise Up Academy' in a reading there during Samoan language week and also enjoyed sharing my first book "Sina and the Tuna" in two short readings at my youngest daughter's Samoan pre-school and also at a Maori bilingual pre-school as well.
I've also been asked to address a school assembly as a NZ Samoan writer during this Samoan language week and it makes me smile as have come a long way since only dreaming about being a writer for so long.
So on Friday we are launching this interesting but very sad story about the origins of the name of Mt Vaea, a mountain which has much significance to me and my family members. The connections being that it was a story that fascinated me when Aeau Taulupoo Lafaialii first shared it with me back in 1989 and then I decided to climb it which brought about an adventure all of it's own and then again in 2009 climbed with my 4 and 6 year old children with their cousin, yet another adventure.
For Fritz, it was about running up Mount Vaea for his distance training as a long distance runner at high school and then cooling off in the pool of 'Loimata o Apa'ula' afterwards; and for my father it was about working at Robert Louis Stevenson's former house which was in the 1950s, the last NZ High Commission before Samoa became Independent in 1962. My dad worked in running general errands and remembers how the Mount towered in the background but 'Loimata o Apa'ula' was only for the guests to bathe in.
The launch will be at my youngest's Samoan pre-school in Mangere, this Friday, and please RSVP via PM if you would like to attend. Another neat blessing that I would like to share with the next generations...
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