A welcome glimpse of family

A still from the New Zealand National Film Unit clip, that shows Samuela Ariki, all in white, welcoming guests.

2018’s Robert Lord Writers’ Cottage summer writer in residence Maria Samuela remembers the day she "met" her grandfather.

I’ve never met my paternal grandfather. I think he died before I was born. I don’t know how old he was or whether he’d ever set foot in New Zealand.

In the ’80s, when I was a teen, I travelled to the Cook Islands with Mum and Dad. We flew into Mauke, one of the southern atolls in the Cooks where Dad grew up.

And we slept in the family homestead where my grandfather had lived. By then, the four double beds set in each corner of the main room were creaking and sagging, and the metal headboards and posts were browning with rust. Outside, the long drop and the cold-water shower concealed behind sheets of corrugated iron were dwarfed by towering coconut trees. The air on the island smelt like burning wood.It was a world so unlike my reality in Porirua. No TV. No fast-food takeaways. No power after 9pm*.

I asked for a photograph of my grandfather. I was told that one existed of him decked out in a white military uniform. But I never saw it. I never saw any photos of him.

So I imagined my grandfather. I built him from scratch with scraps of stories my dad had told me, snaffling the best features and traits from the men on my father’s side. Dad’s confidence. An uncle’s humility. Athletic. Staunch. Brave.

He became one of those flip-the-page characters where facial features are exchanged to suit — brown eyes over blue eyes, full lips over thin, muscles for strength, and the intelligence and charisma to be a leader.He became one of my superheroes, a legend, an ariki.

I’m not a big user of social media. I’m still getting my head around Twitter. I no longer have a Facebook account. Instagram and Snapchat — forget it. But one day in 2012, one of the best days of my life, I was browsing through my Facebook feed. My brother Steve had posted a Youtube clip, Pacific Cruise (1951) [Cook Islands and Tokelau], and out of boredom, I clicked on the link.

Over two minutes in, the voiceover announced: ‘‘The paramount chief of the island, Samuela Ariki, leads off with a real welcome’’.

I was spellbound as I watched my superhero on screen, a legend captured on film just for me, it seemed. His confident stance, his sprightly dance moves, his mana. I remembered that humble homestead in Mauke — the four-poster beds, the outdoor shower — when it hit me: I found Grandpa through social media, a world so unlike my grandfather’s reality. I wouldn’t see his face for another year, in that photograph of him in the white military suit. So now when I think of him I don’t imagine him; I remember my grandfather, and he dances.

*I think.

Maria Samuela was the 2018 University Book Shop Otago Summer Writer in Residence in association with Robert Lord Writers’ Cottage Trust. During which she worked on the next draft of a collection of stories for adults. She hopes to complete that book over the next several months. All her stories offer a Pasifika perspective.

The residency

Are you an emerging writer? Fancy a summer sojourn in our fantastic little City of Literature? Applications are open, until August 20, for the 2019 University Book Shop Otago Summer Writer in Residence in association with Robert Lord Writers’ Cottage Trust. The residency runs January 7, 2019 — February 16, 2019, and provides an emerging writer with six weeks accommodation at the Robert Lord Writers’ Cottage, a stipend, an office and admin base at the University Book Shop, and enrolment at the University of Otago 2019 Summer School, which provides access to classes, opportunities to speak to classes and access to university libraries and resources. Details at https://www.ubsotago.com/pick-me.html.