PACIFIC CURRENTS » Siliga Setoga, A Tribute to my People who Cam-on- a Banana Boat
Siliga-Setoga-A-Tribute-to-my-People-who-Cam-on-a-Banana-Boat.jpg
The essence of this work is derived from my father’s tales of his and many other Polynesian voyagers, set forth to seek their dreams in the land of opportunity. I, like Tangata Whenua can trace my lineage back to my migratory waka difference being multiple generations and 500-800 years depending on the book you’re reading.
Ko SS Matua te Waka (The SS Matua is my Canoe), My Father boarded the ship in Apia in 1961 and left his beloved pre-independent Samoa in a time capsule forever locked in his heart and mind only to be unlocked once my sister and I were born and intrusted with his most prized possession- his culture.
The SS Matua and SS Tofua were produce ships, making the monthly round trip from NZ to the Pacific namely Lautoka Fiji, Apia Samoa and Nukualofa Tonga. The main purpose of the journey was to bring back produce from the Pacific to NZ, but as demand grew for Polynesian settlers to emigrate, a shift occured from bringing ‘produce’ back from the Islands to bringing back Islanders back ‘to produce’, filling the labour shortage in 1960’s NZ.
The Banana Box series is not only a tribute but moreso a metaphor for each and every voyager who came here with nothing but a box filled with dreams and aspirations, in once sense empty and void but in another intangible and yet to be realized, this is my generations duty to honour our parents’ struggle- their word made flesh. A son never forgets.
The essence of this work is derived from my father’s tales of his and many other Polynesian voyagers, set forth to seek their dreams in the land of opportunity. I, like Tangata Whenua can trace my lineage back to my migratory waka difference being multiple generations and 500-800 years depending on the book you’re reading.
Ko SS Matua te Waka (The SS Matua is my Canoe), My Father boarded the ship in Apia in 1961 and left his beloved pre-independent Samoa in a time capsule forever locked in his heart and mind only to be unlocked once my sister and I were born and intrusted with his most prized possession- his culture.
The SS Matua and SS Tofua were produce ships, making the monthly round trip from NZ to the Pacific namely Lautoka Fiji, Apia Samoa and Nukualofa Tonga. The main purpose of the journey was to bring back produce from the Pacific to NZ, but as demand grew for Polynesian settlers to emigrate, a shift occured from bringing ‘produce’ back from the Islands to bringing back Islanders back ‘to produce’, filling the labour shortage in 1960’s NZ.
The Banana Box series is not only a tribute but moreso a metaphor for each and every voyager who came here with nothing but a box filled with dreams and aspirations, in once sense empty and void but in another intangible and yet to be realized, this is my generations duty to honour our parents’ struggle- their word made flesh. A son never forgets.