Transcript
Samoan Queer Lives launched with the blessing of Wellington's indigenous queer community.
Rather than accounts from academics or other observers Samoan Queer Lives shares first-hand accounts of lives lived.
Its co-editors, Yuki Kihara and Dan Taulapapa McMullin, spent 11 years collating what is a social history of Samoa's diverse queer community both at home and among the diaspora.
The publisher, Tony Morrow from Little Island Press, says it's a book that will expand the readers' horizons.
"Our remit is to provide connection between peoples of different communities, to provide understanding and to support diversity. So, our expectation is, and as you can see here tonight that a wide range of community representatives are present, and they will appreciate the stories in this book as they're very human stories."
Yuki Kihara flew in from Apia, Samoa for the launch however her co-editor was unable to make the journey from New York.
"On behalf of Dan Taulapapa McMullin and myself Yuki Kihara the co-editor of Samoan Queer Lives, I am overwhelmed."
She talked about the logistics of co-ordinating a publication with contributors in seven different parts of the world and editors 12,000 kilometres apart.
"Believe it or not, there were actually more than 14 people that actually contributed their chapter that Dan and I actually had to decline. So, when people think that all fa'afafine lead interesting lives, actually they don't. (laughter)"
She thanked and congratulated the contributors for their openness and honesty.
"When I received their transcripts, it was like raw. It was like as if they were in front of me telling me their story, and that's exactly what I wanted."
She says the book remains uninhibited, uncensored and in the first person's voice.
It captures the voices of one of the original continuous indigenous queer cultures of Polynesia and the Pacific Islands.
The head of the New Zealand Pasifika LGBTQI health provider F'INE, and a member of Aotearoa's Fakafifine Niuean community, Phylesha Brown-Acton highlighted its significance.
"It's not just a book that can sit pretty on a shelf. It is something that we as activists can use in our movement to be able to progress issues that are still currently pending within the Pacific region, related to decriminalisation on homosexuality, related to access to health, related to rights and issues around rights."
Ms Brown-Acton says it examines issues of past and present but will remain pivotal in the future.
One of the contributors, the president of Samoa's Fa'afafine Association Alex Su'a wrote of her own struggles growing up.
"I was a victim of bullying at school and I was a defenceless person. My story is vastly different from my other colleagues who are staunch-broad-shouldered fa'afafine (laughter) and they can never mess with them (laughter) I wasn't."
Her response was to put her head down and study harder. She is now a lawyer and provides legal services for the community in Samoa.
American Samoa's fa'afafine association the SOFIAS' Mikaela Saelua read one of their member's contributions Shevon Matai who has since died.
"And I thank that man for preparing me. I never, never thought that his strictness and all this treatment that I always saw as a negative would prepare me to live the toughness of a life of a fa'afafine in a heterosexual community. I can say that dad well prepared me to live life."
Ms Saelua says it speaks to the universality of challenges of those in the community, particularly with their fathers.
New Zealand's associate minister of Culture and Heritage and of Pacific People's, Carmel Sepuloni, highlighted the importance of young Pacific people having literature that reflects them.
"It also serves as something that other Pacific people who may have children can turn to and reflect on with regards to how we as parents are with our children and how we support our children to be who they are and give them that sense of security and confidence from a really young age."
In an environment where New Zealand has experienced hatred of the most extreme kind focused on another minority, Ms Sepuloni says the Samoan Queer Lives serves as an instrument of understanding and connection which can bring communities together.
