Pacific Hibiscus "Sharing our Pasifika stories one book at a time"... (with 7 books and counting)

"Sharing our Pasifika stories one book at a time"

It's been good to reflect on my journey as a writer/author thus far having come a long way and with a few more hurdles to go (Lord willing). I thought to feature the seven books that have been self-published so far to give a bit of a background on each and how it came to being, in chronological (time) order.

Sina and the Tuna (2015) was my first book which combined both painting and writing. In fact, the writing was completed in December 2014 but I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to go about publishing a book until I met with Maria (business mentor) and her conversation with me got me on track. This was the first tala o le vavau (ancient Samoan story) that my parents shared with me when I was very young. And as it was the very first book, it was also the most expensive book to print that almost stopped me from publishing! i.e. expensive format for which I may bring out a second edition.

Mount Vaea and the tears of Apa'ula (2015) was the second bilingual English/Samoan picture book which was a joint collaboration between my beloved husband, Tofilau Fritz, and I. He being, what is often termed, a 'native speaker' and was able to translate both books as although I understand and can converse in Samoan my grammar and writing needs a lot of support. This story was shared with me by the late A'eau Taulupo'o Lafaiali'i whom died this very year before I was able to gift him with copies. This story was collected during my 1989 fieldwork in Falealupo for my Masters in Geography and I will forever be grateful to him.

Maui and Sina (2015) was the first play that I wrote for Tangaroa College in 1994 when I was an English teacher there and was the first of 7 plays that I wrote for schools throughout South Auckland at the time. It was so successful as a play that I just continued to write. It's a story about the migration myth from Hawaiki to the Pacific Islands, to NZ in following the journey of the Siaki Sone family. I collaborated with my eldest child to design the cover.

Tagaloalagi (2015) was the second play that I wrote for Tangaroa College in 1995. In each of the plays, I included a Samoan ancient story to tie to the youth issues that I highlighted which often included conflict between Island born parents values and the new values of their NZ born children. Again, I collaborated with my eldest on the cover design. Note how bright the colours are as it was definitely intentional.

Tagaloalagi and Fue (2015) was launched in Samoa with my parents on my significant birthday and it was a story that my father shared with me during my first Masters studies. I wanted for readers to see that although it wasn't quite the Christian story of the creation of people but that Samoans of old did believe in a omnipotent God although they did not carve images of him as other surrounding Pacific Islands had.

Su'e the lost son (2016) was the third in the trilogy of plays written for Tangaroa College and it was launched in the local youth library just down the road from where I had taught some years before, in fact it was the 20th anniversary of the play that it was published. The storyline was a rather elaborate story based on a Samoan fagogo (Samoan bedtime story) that my mother shared with me about Sina and her many brothers called Tui. The cover design was again a collaborative effort with my eldest.

The footprint of Moso (2016) is now the fourth book in our series of tala o le vavau (ancient Samoan stories) that was re-written and illustrated for a general audience. My family had accompanied me to Samoa for a research and celebratory trip to view the sacred sites in Falealupo. It was a neat family trip but all of us, except for our youngest child, caught the Zika virus (Ouch!) but the story connects Samoa to Fiji and other Pacific/Polynesian Islands with similar stories.

Pacific Hibiscus a poetry collection (2016) soon to be published...

Pacific Hibiscus is also the name of the small publishing company that we hope to grow locally, nationally and globally with the motto of "Sharing our Pasifika stories one book at a time"...