Just another Pasifika poet

I am just another Pasifika poet

a token, a sound bite

No matter what I write

my words cannot stand

on their own

because I am not quite white.

I am just another Pasifika poet

so I must speak in iambic pentameter

    or you will conclude

I don’t know what that is

and I learnt my craft on youtube

You will say I must be copying Def Poetry Jam

Because you know

We are

both brown.

You

who have never heard the beauty

of a tulafale’s words

unfurling in full flight

   dipping and soaring

on wings of light

                      the sound of a gafa

melodious and sweet

                                                and deep

a dangerous lullaby

that can rip you apart with its teeth

and

you

who

would not understand

anyway

you say

I am just another Pasifika poet

On a search for identity

As if I don’t know

my entire geneaology

you say I am obsessed with the other

because I do not talk about you

as if Aotearoa is not part of the Pacific

and Pasifika

does not belong here too

and the most disturbing thing is

you didn’t even

seem

to realize

that what you were saying was offensive

or how it was a stereotype

you truly seemed to believe

you 

were

reporting

facts.

because you are

palagi

(I assume…

like you did)

and your words

stand

on their own.



and I

I 

am

just another 
Pasifika poet

No matter what I write

My words cannot stand

on their own

Because I am not quite white
and this

this

is just another sound bite


I hope it rips you apart

with its teeth.

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Author's postscript:  I was not going to dignify an 'article' that was published in The Big Idea with a response.  I went instead to SUP and performed a couple of the poems (Denial and A Lament -that are already up on this blog) in solidarity.  But it was not enough.  Too often we look the other way.  As evident by the title of this blog-  I normally live in Sydney.  I have lived in Australia for more than 10 years now.  As an Australian (as well as a Samoan and a New Zealander) I own that Australia has issues with racism.  Popular culture tell us that New Zealand is more accepting, a place that truly embraces its Pacific heritage.  I was looking forward to this change during my 'gap year' (as I am referring to it so I can sound youthful like that). So I have been somewhat shocked that New Zealand hasn't quite been the utopia of multi-cultural respect that I fondly recalled.  I can honestly say that I have had moments since arriving in Auckland where I have listened to people speak, or read an article such as this one, and thought that I have never felt more brown.  This is my response.