Sound Poetry and the Migrant Story
Polynesian Artists Combine in Spoken Word and Music
A blend of poetry, music and found sounds, the work is a boundary-pushing "documentary" based around the life of Teaiwa.
A founding member of the Niu Waves Writers' Collective based in Suva, and of African American, Kiribati and Banaban descent, Teaiwa now lives in Wellington. In the CD, she explores her reaction to the streets and people of New Zealand as a woman relocating from Fiji.
Some of the themes explored here will be familiar to all migrants: making a place for oneself in a new neighbourhood; the question: "So where are you from...originally"?
Other poems have a more Pacific flavour--for example, the active seeking out of history and culture and sharing with family and friends; a physical craving for warm sea. With the CD, Teaiwa establishes herself among contemporary New Zealand Pacific artists whose work reflects issues of identity and adaptation. Samoan New Zealand performance poet Tusiata Avia is another who uses spoken word to communicate these themes.
Poetry, Percussion, Recorded Sound
Sound designer for I Can See Fiji is Wellington poet, musician and storyteller Hinemoana Baker , who cut, blended and layered the poems, mixing them with everyday sounds recorded by Teaiwa, and percussion by Des Mallon. Robbie Duncan is sound engineer.
Baker, who has commented that her musical tastes "tend towards the avant-garde", had significant artistic freedom in creating the CD. One of the characteristics of modern spoken word creations that cross over into explorations of music and sound is that they are not static – they can change with each version. The recorded I Can See Fiji is different from the poems in the liner notes, and live performances of the work are likely again to take a new approach.
The result of the collaboration and level of trust between the two artists is a work of audiotheatre – an invocation, as Baker said at the CD launch, "to tune into the sounds of your life".
The mixing also has the effect of highlighting the poignancy, and sometimes humour, of Teaiwa's imagery. Sound pictures of coconuts leaning towards the sea intersperse with walking rhythms, the "exile's thrill at being caught in this traffic,...of inhaling, exhaling that something we make together..." Cellphone ringtones are counterposed with a sidewalk scene in which a shelf has been left with a sign saying: "free for a nice home". "Two women from Fiji tried to lift it but it was too heavy for them to carry".
The poet's observing eye does not defeat the empathetic mood of the CD. There are moments of anger and fear, but overall Teaiwa conveys warmth and love towards family, friends, and her "places" – old and new.
Sounds of your life
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