A play about my storyteller mother

(Back l-r) Levani Vosasi, percussionist, Ali Foa'i, (front l-r), Fiona Collins, Dianna Fuemana and Reid Elisaia. Photob / Supplied

Falemalama Fuemana was a devoted wife, a loving mother and a staunchly proud and caring grandmother and great-grandmother who let her grandchildren drink tea and dunk sweet biscuits in the brew.

She was also a world traveller and an inspirational storyteller who came to New Zealand in the 1960s from her home in American Samoa, via Niue and the United States, to raise eight children in a country where she didn't speak the language.

When she died unexpectedly in 2006 of a heart attack at the age of 64, her youngest daughter, playwright Dianna Fuemana, wanted to honour her mother's memory and remember her remarkable achievements.

"When someone dies, you get your standard bereavement leave and then you're just expected to get on with your life," she says. "I was finding that quite hard to do at the time, particularly as my mother's was a sudden death.

"Being the youngest in my family - and the only child born in New Zealand - I was in an emotional state of wanting to honour her life and take the time to really remember my mother."

Now two generations of the Fuemana clan are paying homage to the family matriarch in the play Falemalama. Falemalama's journey to New Zealand - and the recollections she shared of it - provided the foundation for the semi-autobiographical play, which uses music, Pacific movement and oral storytelling traditions.

Written by Dianna Fuemana in 2006, Falemalama premiered that year at the New World Theatre in Minneapolis as a one-woman show. Fuemana has since altered the play so it features three actors: her 15-year-old daughter Reid Elisaia, her 24-year-old nephew Ali Foa'i and Fiona Collins.

Elisaia, a student at Western Springs College, says it is a privilege to play - among other roles - her grandmother.

"When I first read the script, I thought it was very powerful but also very poetic," she says. "I cried because I really missed my grandmother and I still do. She was my role model and like a big, big sister to me."

Foa'i, a Unitec drama school graduate, says his nana made all her grandchildren - there were 33 as well as two great-grandchildren when she died - feel special.

He says both he and Elisaia have learned more about their family history and gained a greater appreciation of what their grandparents, Falemalama and Togavale, experienced when settling in New Zealand.

The cousins performed Falemalama last year at the 10th South Pacific Arts Festival in Pago Pago, American Samoa, where it was also televised live. It has previously been seen in New Zealand only by the Fuemana family but now makes its public debut as part of the MauForum at the Corban Estate in Henderson. A 23-day event, Mau brings together artists, thinkers, writers, activists, heads of government and communities from across the Pacific.

Fuemana says while Falemalama differs from the grittier and more contemporary urban stories of earlier plays like Frangipani Perfume, its themes of migration, struggle against adversity and identity resonate throughout New Zealand society.

"We are very good at the 'history' part of our families in terms of the names and dates but it is valuable to be able to go beyond that and write something that really says something about a person. I hope it is beneficial to other Pacific people who want to write about family. This approach gives a person a life, an identity and a story to tell."

Performance

What: Falemalama
Where and when: Mau Theatre, Corban Estate Arts Centre, Henderson, March 6, 8-10