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As she travelled around the world, attending literary festivals and receiving awards like the 1997 Commonwealth Writer's Prize, author and performance poet Sia Figiel felt increasingly terrified.
Hailed as Samoa's first female writer after her debut novel Where We Once Belonged, Figiel was described as brave and heroic for daring to write a coming-of-age story which offered an alternative view of Samoan society.
Rather than portraying an island paradise, Where We Once Belonged provided a view of a paradise lost: a patriarchal society with wide gender disparities, family-sanctioned violence and individual identity always dominated by community.
Despite the accolades, Figiel feared rejection because - like one of the characters in her novel - she had questioned her culture. The responsibility of being held up as the spokesperson for an entire race and generation weighed heavily on her.
"Everyone was expecting Samoa's first female writer to speak with jewels coming out of her mouth, but I felt there were urgent issues which needed addressing from a female perspective," she says.
"I was only 29 as all this was happening and to deal with it on a global stage was almost overwhelming. I could not represent an entire race or, indeed, indigenous people as a whole so I had to get away."
She retreated to the island of Savai'i, far away from telephones, fax machines and internet connections. Six months later, prompted by Tongan writer Epeli Han'ofa, Figiel re-emerged to teach creative writing.
Given the intensity of her feelings, it is surprising that Figiel is relaxed - but excited - as she re-enters the spotlight 12 years later with the adaptation of her book into a stage play.
Where We Once Belonged is Auckland Theatre Company's latest production, starring Goretti Chadwick, Pua Magasiva, Robbie Magasiva, Anapela Polataivao and Joy Vaele. It premiered to largely positive reviews at the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts in Wellington last month and opens in Auckland tonight.
Figiel says she can relax more because it is not her novel on stage but playwright Dave Armstrong's interpretation of it. Armstrong won Best New New Zealand Play in two consecutive years at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for The Tutor and Niu Sila (which he co-wrote with Figiel's childhood friend Oscar Kightley), while his television writing credits include Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby, Bro'town, The Semisis, Skitz, Shortland Street and Spin Doctors.
He asked Figiel if he could adapt her book after reading it while on holiday in Samoa. The ATC expressed an interest in staging it, but artistic director Colin McColl - who directs the production alongside Dave Fane - says he wanted Figiel's approval. Armstrong emailed her his proposal.
"I was in Hawaii where my son was having surgery," Figiel says. "I was not in an artistic frame of mind; I had more important things to deal with so I just said yes. He knew my cousin, Dave Fane, and he had worked with my friend Oscar Kightley so I figured he knew something about Samoa."
McColl says ATC has a responsibility to present work which reflects the city in which it is based. "We live in a Pacific city and as the major professional theatre company in the region, it is vital we produce work that reflects accurately the region. What is so fantastic about Where We Once Belonged is that it is a Samoan story based in 1970s Samoa. Most recent Pacific Island theatre, television and film have centred on the Samoan experience in New Zealand."
True to Figiel's novel, the story focuses on 13-year-old Alofa and her friends Lili and Moa, who want to have fun but are up against the entrenched values of traditional Samoan life.
Figiel's novel weaves the past with the present and uses metaphors, myths and traditional story-telling techniques. The stage version is more linear in its telling, a convention Figiel accepts.
"The story is Dave's take on the book and it shows and reflects his traditions and conventions, where he comes from," she says. "It is a Western perspective but it is exciting to see there is more than one way of looking at things.
"My version would be profoundly deep material laced with humour whereas Dave's take is the other way around, but it is still very poignant and I was immensely overwhelmed when I saw the production."
Figiel is also now better able to deal with the tensions that arise from writing things people do not necessarily want to read. The reaction of her mother, Moana T'oomalatai, went some way to calming her fears.
"My mother was a deacon in the church and here I was writing about things which were taboos we did not speak about ... She read my book and then came and hugged me. She told me she saw herself in my story and then she shared with me things that had happened to her when she was growing up. They were things that she had not told anyone about."
Meeting fellow Pacific writer Alistair Te Ariki Campbell at a 1998 writers' workshop in South Auckland finally made her realise all writers struggle with a darker side to their work. Figiel hopes the play will continue to open up dialogue about Samoan culture, not just among her countrymen and women but also among New Zealanders.
"I have heard Pacific and Palagi friends talking about how the book has influenced them and I realise it is far bigger than me."
What: Where We Once Belonged
Where and when: Concert Chamber, Auckland Town Hall, March 27-April 19
