Contemporary Pasifika Poetry in Aotearoa New Zealand: An interview with Selina Tusitala Marsh

ABSTRACT

In this interview conducted in the English Department at the University of Auckland in July 2019, the poet-scholar Selina Tusitala Marsh touches on many aspects of her pioneering role as the pre-eminent woman poet writing about the Pacific in Aotearoa New Zealand. She discusses the responsibilities associated with being the country’s Poet Laureate (2017–19), as the first Pasifika person to be awarded this office; the symbolic nature of her tokotoko, the Māori ceremonial carved walking-stick granted to Poets Laureate; the Pacific traditions and hybrid heritage that informs her poetry and her teaching of creative writing and Pacific literature at the University of Auckland. The interview also covers her current academic and creative projects focused on Pacific women poets, her work with local communities and school children, her views on the lack of role models for the teaching and writing of Pacific poetry, and her strategies to balance her many public and private roles.

KEYWORDS:

• Selina Tusitala Marsh
• Pacific literature
• Pasifika identities
• New Zealand Poet Laureate
• representation

Acknowledgments

Paloma Fresno-Calleja gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO), the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI), and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (Reference FFI 2016-75130-P).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. As explained in the National Library website: “The award of Poet Laureate celebrates outstanding contributions to New Zealand poetry. For a two-year period, the Laureate is supported by the National Library to create new work and promote poetry throughout the country. The Laureate is an accomplished and highly regarded poet who can speak on behalf of New Zealand poetry, and to its readers.” Accessed September 2019. https://natlib.govt.nz/about-us/scholarships-and-awards/poet-laureate.

2. The New Zealand Poet Laureate Award has been previously granted to: Bill Manhire (1997–99), Hone Tuwhare (1999–2001), Elizabeth Smither (2001–03), Brian Turner (2003–05), Jenny Bornholdt (2005–07), Michelle Leggott (2007–09), Cilla McQueen (2009–11), Ian Wedde (2011–13), Vincent O’Sullivan (2013–15), and C.K. Stead (2015–17). The New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2019–21 is David Eggleton.

3. Samoan Head of State (O le Ao O le Malo) from 2007 to 2017.

4. Marsh’s blog entries written during her laureateship can be found at http://www.poetlaureate.org.nz/.

5. See, for instance, “Circle of Stones” (33–34) in Fast Talking PI (Marsh 2009) ; “Apostles” (1–11), “Led by Line” (13), or “Queens I Have Met” (42–46) in Tightrope (Marsh 2017).

6. Tightrope’s dedication reads “for Teresia Teaiwa shooting black star (1968–2017)” and the collection includes the poem “Essential Oils for the Dying” (65), written in her memory (Marsh 2017).

7. Nafanua was a historical warrior princess and the goddess of war in Samoan mythology and has featured prominently in a number of works by Pasifika writers, most notably in Tusiata Avia’s (2009) collection Bloodclot. For an account of various revisions of the goddess figure, see Marsh (2016a).

8. See, for instance, poems like “Things on Thursdays” (11–14) and “Cardboard Crows” (19–21) (Fast Talking PI [Marsh 2009]), or “The Working Mother’s Guide to Reading Seventy Books a Year” (80–81) (Tightrope [Marsh 2017]).

9. Tagata Pasifika is a weekly television programme airing on TVNZ which deals with general affairs related to New Zealand Pasifika community and other topics of the wider Pacific region. See https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/tagata-pasifika. The interview with Marsh is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tLZpk33eic.

10. Poems about Marsh’s teaching experiences include “Teaching Pacific Literature” (16) (Dark Sparring [Marsh 2013]) and “In Creative Writing Class” (95) and “Explanation of Poetry to My Immigrant Mother” (32–34) (Tightrope [Marsh 2017]).

11. Current courses include “Oceanic Literatures of Aotearoa: Ngā Tuhinga Kōrero o te Moana nui a Kiwa” taught by Dr Tina Makereti at Massey University, and a more general course on Pacific cultures (“Introduction to Pacific Histories, Languages and Cultures”) taught by Alice Te Punga Somerville at the University of Waikato.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paloma Fresno-Calleja

Paloma Fresno-Calleja is senior lecturer in English at the University of the Balearic Islands. Her research focuses on New Zealand and Pacific literatures. She has published articles on the work of Pacific female writers such as Selina Tusitala Marsh, Tusiata Avia, Sia Figiel, and Lani Wendt Young, and translated short stories by Pacific authors such as Sia Figiel and Albert Wendt into Spanish.

Janet M. Wilson

Janet M. Wilson is professor of English and postcolonial studies at the University of Northampton, UK, and specializes in Australasian postcolonial and diaspora writing. She has written on Pacific and Maori writers in the co-edited “Pacific Waves: Reverberations from Oceania”, a special issue of the Journal of Postcolonial Writing 54(5) (2018), and has just published the edited volume The General and the Nightingale: The War Stories of Dan Davin (2020).