Shock and sadness in Samoa...

 

To keep me motivated in my walking I joined another virtual online challenge by 'Conqueror'. My first walk was the Te Araroa challenge which was a virtual 161km walk in the South Island and now awaiting for my medal to arrive (of course you have to pay for it :).

So whilst I was away in Australia visiting Melbourne and Sydney with family (I have since returned) I read some shocking news that was so very sad and unbelievable.

Some years ago, pre-COVID, I remember going to a talk by an award winning Samoan novelist and poet Sia Figel. I had read her novels and poetry and found them to be quite controversial in some ways and challenging in others.

In the literary landscape of Samoa, there are few renown Samoan writers with more renown non-Samoan writers writing about Samoa than Samoans. 

Sia Figel made waves with her writings and they were translated into many languages globally. She was known to have had the opportunities to live in many places around the world over the years and I remember reading some of her articles whilst she was living in the USA.

Whilst I was in Australia, I read that the renown writer had handed herself into a Police Station in Samoa due to an incident between her and another literary renown Samoan academic who had worked at the University of Hawaii, as a literary Professor, in Manoa where I had once visited with my elder children some years ago. 

I read that the Samoan Police initially pressed chargers of manslaughter but that it was elevated to murder with their current ongoing investigation. Samoa is such a small group of islands that I know tha the news would have travelled very fast around the islands. 

I think the very sad news was that had she been quite public (in remembering of reading her articles) about mental illness and other challenges that she had been facing. However, I wasn't aware that she had been living in Samoa when I visited with family frequently last year.

It is so sad to think about two prominent Samoan literary figures' families whose lives have been deeply impacted by this act. My heart and mind go directly to the ifoga (deliberate act of humility) process for the families involved as it is such a heinous crime in Samoa that reminds us of the fragility of life.

Today I read Selina Tusitala Marsh's poem and response to the death of her friend. Selina was also in the Samoan literary circles and knew of both women. Her poem contained a cautioning to her friend but didn't realize the ramifications of that request at the time.

For those of us who are Samoan writers (cautiously outside of the literary circles), I feel for the grieving families and all those who have been impacted by this news. I don't know how her writings will now fare in the aftermath as only time will tell but I offer a prayer for such a time as this that there will somehow be a peaceable solution in the circumstances that have happened.

Samoa is a small nation but we have diaspora Samoans living globally around the world. It is something for us to ponder on how we support those around us in need of assistance in their mental well-being (my assumption). A sad day for Samoa and even sadder for the families involved...