Today is a great day.
I’ve garnered support for this project from rather unexpected corners of our community. And in this update I just wanted to highlight four particular individuals who have decided to pledge, and why I am trying my best not to geek out!
As some of you know, while the main idea behind the film is to try and give our people positive stories they can see themselves in, I also wanted to make sure we dealt with a another rather sensitive issue in our film.
I wanted to make sure that we tried our best to weave into our narrative the importance of empowering our women. It’s no secret that we still live in a heavily patriarchal society that sometimes limits our women’s voices, as well as the opportunities available to them. We’ve come a long way, yet there is still a lot of work to do in that regard.
While child rearing and being a mother is a very noble profession, I’ve often felt uncomfortable at the idea that the success of our women was measured solely on how they fare in taking care of their families, and less on other aspirations they might have in life. And while there are so many aspects of our Samoan culture that I truly believe makes it so unique and beautiful, one area that I feel we need to do better in is how we treat our women.
You see, our Samoan culture is inherently patriarchal. Based on my experiences, that meant that men were always at the head of the household – which is fine to an extent. Some men take their roles as the head of the family seriously, and do all in their ability to ensure that their families are well taken care of. But, others, sadly, use their cultural sanctioned role of being the head of the family to justify limiting the aspirations of the women in their families, and in some cases justify spousal abuse. It’s tough.
So it makes me insanely excited to hear from four women who are legitimately TITANS in our Samoan community – women who have left an indelible mark in the lives of many and inspired women in our community to aim for more – step forward and pledge towards this humble film, and help a nobody like me with a dream that I’ve nursed since I was young.
The first is Sina Retzlaff, a highly visible woman in Samoa who is a successful businesswoman, and a survivor of domestic abuse. She has CHAMPIONED the issue, and has legitimately become a beacon of hope for women in our community who are stuck in relationships marred with violence. The problem with domestic abuse in our communities is that we tend to not do anything about it. It makes us uncomfortable. We want to sweep it under the floor (or Samoan mat, as it were) and not deal with it.
But Miss Retzlaff not only broke free of the chains of violence she was imprisoned in, but she has become a highly vocal person on the issue, and has generated highly positive discussion about it on various levels in our community. I’ve read and watched her interviews from afar, and have become awestruck in her ability to bring the issue to fore in a constructive and positive manner, despite the topic being so taboo, and despite so many negative and misogynistic efforts to silence her. You can read a little bit of her journey on the link below:
http://www.samoaobserver.ws/other/women/8680-lemalu-sina-retzlaff-breaking-the-silence
The second is Zita Martel, another successful Samoan business woman who has dedicated her life to promoting Samoa as the ultimate holiday destination. But she also did something else – she became the FIRST woman to involve herself in one of Samoa’s traditionally male sports, and managed to come out on top. Rugby is HUGE on island, it’s almost a religion. But a sport that comes in close second is fautasi racing. While New Zealand has yacht racing, in Samoa we have fautasi racing. Zita Martel decided to take part in the sport, becoming the first FEMALE skipper and longboat captain to DARE compete in what was widely perceived as male domain. Some laughed, others vilified her, and others didn’t take her seriously. Yet, under her leadership, the Segavao fautasi has consistently won time and time again, which is an amazing feat as sometimes she would compete against fatausi’s made from fibreglass, which are lighter and therefore meant to be fast er. Her success on the seas has become legendary that she has now been dubbed as the “Queen of the Longboats” and sometimes “The Witch of the Water”.
Zita has challenged the perceptions of our people about what our women can and can’t do, and has shown that there are no limits to what our women can achieve. She has used the popular sport of fautasi as a platform to inspire thousands of women, and she will continue to do so for the unforeseeable future. You can watch her amazing story at the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CtzFubtiI8
The third is Lani Wendt Young, a highly successful Samoan author. I had the pleasure of working with Lani on some of the promotional stuff for her Telesa books, and since then I’ve witnessed her meteoric rise in popularity amongst our youth, and surprisingly in a lot of adults (despite her books targeted at a YA audience). In many ways, she serves as one of my inspirations as we share a deep belief in the need for more stories told BY our people FOR our people. Her Telesa books are set in Samoa, yet are modern in narrative, while also making use of some of Samoa’s old myths and legends. And I’ve noticed that our youth have turned off the TV, and picked up a book instead – that’s how downright GOOD her books are. And that’s the beauty of her work – she has created characters and stories that our youth can relate to, stories they can see themselves in, set in a place we all know and love, that our youth finally have book heroes the y can aspire to. Her stories have been a long time coming, and has inspired a new generation of writers to tell stories that focus on our people. With that said, you can watch one of the book trailers I filmed and edited for her at the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LDY7ic0Ll4
The last is an interesting one. Sita Leota is your average government worker. She’s a graduate from the University of Victoria in Wellington, and is a self-professed boring person who currently works as an Audit Director in Samoa’s Audit Office. Yet she has harnessed the power of social media to give her unique spin on a variety of topics, and in the process has challenged society to expand its views, and think more deeply about issues. She first came to my attention a few years back, when there was huge publicity surrounding a young Samoan girl who had made intimate recordings of herself for her boyfriend. The video was leaked, and was shared all over the country – so much so that it made headlines for many weeks.
The fallout afterwards was unbelievably heart-breaking, with so many Samoans raining their hate, vitriol, and judgement down on this poor young girl who made a very sorry mistake. The girl was alienated by her family, and suffered the wrath of the larger population who did not even know her. Yet, Sita Leota was the first to write a very compelling column piece which shifted the attention away from the girl, and focused on the person who perpetrated such a gross invasion of privacy – her boyfriend. Sita pointed out that, we’re so busy judging the girl that we forgot that it was an intimate recording made for the eyes of someone whom the girl believed she could trust. Sita wrote that the girl was the victim in the whole situation, and everybody was so busy victimizing her further, that they did not focus on the perpetrator who had betrayed her by sharing something that was meant for him and him alone. Yet, she also focused on the Christian message of love and f orgiveness, and how those who ‘without sin should cast the first stone’ – in other words, let us not judge others when we ourselves are far from perfect. And in this world sometimes filled with hate, we all need to practice a little more love and tolerance towards others, especially when they stumble and fall.
Since then, Sita has earned herself an unbelievably large amount of fans (as well as enemies) who religiously follow her posts, and engage with her in mostly positive online discussions. I have become one of those fans. And one of the things I like about Sita Leota is that she has the ability to bring forward stories that we tend not to bother about, and get people talking about it, get people to care and try to contribute – and she does it with wit, intelligence, and sometimes a lot of sarcasm. She has demonstrated just how much she cares about the issues she writes about, and I have no doubt in my mind that she will become one of Samoa’s prominent leaders in the future – maybe even Samoa’s first female Prime Minister!
My apologies for the long post – as I’ve said, I’m still geeking out that these titans have contributed to this small film. I’m so humbled. And also feeling mighty inspired. These women are truly modern Samoan warriors!
We need more of these inspirational women in our society. And my hope is, in some small way, to contribute to bettering our people’s attitude towards how we treat our women, and in the process hopefully leave a positive message for our women, especially our young girls, who might potentially see this film. I hope our main female character, Tiare, will serve as a genuine inspiration for many. I am proud of how we’ve crafted her story and dealt with a sensitive issue, and I hope you’ll all feel the same once we finish this project.
Many of you who do not have credit/debit cards have donated into my account so I can pledge directly, and I just wanted to say a very big fa’afetai tele lava. If you or a friend do not have credit/debit cards to pledge, please email me on jkwa013@aucklanduni.ac.nz and we’ll work something out. Whichever the case, if we are not able to reach out target, all your pledges will be refunded to you.
Once again, a massive fa’afetai to you all for helping us with our efforts to finish this project, I am very grateful beyond words for all your generosity.
Jordan
