Sia Figiel

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Sia Figiel, self-portrait
Sia Figiel, self-portrait

Sia Figiel (* 1967 in Matautu Tai , Samoa ) is a Samoan writer, poet and performance artist. She is considered one of the most renowned Samoan literary professionals and the first female novelist in her country. In addition, she is an activist against the stigmatization of diabetes in her home country.

Life

Figiel was born in 1967 to a Samoan mother and a Polish-American father. According to her own statement, her educational path included Christian-religious schools and traditional Samoan cultural aspects such as Fagogo (storytelling) or Faleaitu (spiritual theater).

She graduated from high school in New Zealand Auckland , left her country at the age of 16 years and acquired at Whitworth College in Spokane ( Washington ) in the United States her bachelor's degree in Historical Sciences . After graduation, she initially taught in Samoa, but moved to Germany in the early 1990s, where she lived in Berlin and traveled through Western and Eastern Europe.

In Berlin, she attended creative writing courses and met Tony Morrison at a reading , who, according to her, inspired her to write. In the period that followed, Figiel gained his first experience as a performance poet and author. When she returned to her homeland in 1994, she won the Polynesian Literary Competition that same year .

In 1996 both The Girl in the Moon Circle, a collection of short texts, and her debut novel Where we once belonged were published . In 1997 he was awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize .

Figiel performed her poems at international festivals and reading stages - for example in Colombia , Fiji , Germany , New Zealand, Spain and the USA . She was Writer-in-Residence at the University of Technology in Sydney , University of the South Pacific and the University of Hawaii (2002). She occasionally taught intermediate English in schools in Samoa and American Samoa , where she lived for a period in the 2000s .

Figiel is a single mother of two sons. Like many people in Samoa, she was severely obese , and in 2003, like her parents who died from complications from the disease, she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus , which is both widespread and stigmatized in her homeland. At first she did not take the disease seriously, after a few years she switched to insulin medication and did not change her eating behavior - which has to do with the importance of food in Samoan culture, among other things. Her eight-year-old son regularly gave her the injections in emergencies when she was unable to do so herself. In 2012 she moved to the United States with her family. She changed her diet and initially lost around 35 kilos in body weight. When she was diagnosed with severe periodontal disease , so that all of her teeth had to be extracted, she decided to have this procedure filmed (and uploaded to YouTube), thus helping to educate people about the consequences of diabetes, especially in her home country. She continued her weight loss through healthy eating and exercise and was able to take part in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon in 2014 .

plant

Among other things, Figiel uses the traditional Samoan narrative form of su'ifefiloi in her works . In the original meaning of the word, su'ifefiloi denotes a special way of weaving flowers and twigs together to form a mat or the typical flower chain . With su'ifefiloi as a text form, different, independent texts - such as songs or poems - are combined by the narrator to create something new.

Figiel's main character Alofa (= Love) Filiga, a young woman, appears in the first two works, but also reappears in other works.

The thematic influences of the Samoan poet and writer Albert Wendt can not be overlooked in Figiel's texts . Like Wendt, her texts deal with colonialism , state independence and migration and their influence on Samoan culture. Unlike Wendt, however, her focus is on the female perspective. Her topics are the western myth regarding the sexuality of South Sea women, gender issues and the western influence in media, consumer capitalism and education on young women in Samoa. Before Figiel, these topics were practically non-existent in South Pacific literature.

Since her texts depend heavily on the effect in the oral presentation, she and Teresia Teaiwa released an audio CD in 2000 under the title Terenesia. Amplified poetry and songs . The poem Songs of the fat brown woman was included in the anthology Best New Zealand Poems in 2003 (because her books are published in New Zealand and there is a large population of people from the Pacific Islands, Figiel is sometimes perceived as a New Zealand writer).

Figiel's works were published in several editions and have been translated into numerous languages. In 2016 her most recent novel to date was published under the title Freelove, which deals with taboo subjects such as incest , among other things .

Awards

Publications (selection)

  • Sia Figiel: The girl in the moon circle . Mana Publications, Suva, Fiji 1996, OCLC 8085332066 .
  • Where we once belonged . (Novel). Kaya Press, New York 1999, ISBN 1-885030-27-4 .
  • with Teresia Teaiwa : Terenesia. Amplified poetry and songs (Audio CD, 2000)
  • They who do not grieve . (Novel). Kaya, New York, NY 2003, ISBN 1-885030-33-9 .
  • To a young artist in contemplation . (Poems and short prose). Pacific Writing Forum, University of the South Pacific, 2001, ISBN 982-366-005-0 .
  • Freelove . (Novel). Honolulu, Hawaii 2016, ISBN 978-0-9822535-5-7 .

In German translation

  • Alofa . Unionsverlag, Zurich 1998, ISBN 978-3-293-00253-1 (English: Where we once belonged . Translated by Alexandra Bröhm).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Commonwealth Secretariat (Ed.): Commonwealth Yearbook 2013. (=  Commonwealth Yearbook ). Nexus Strategic Partnerships, 2013, ISBN 978-1-908609-05-2 , pp. 441 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  2. ↑ a b Juniper Ellis: Moving the center: An interview with Sia Figiel . In: World Literature Written in English . tape 37 , no. 1-2 , January 1, 1998, ISSN  0093-1705 , pp. 69-79 , doi : 10.1080 / 17449859808589290 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Michelle Keown: 'Gauguin is dead' Sia Figiel and the Polynesian female body . In: Michelle Keown (Ed.): Postcolonial Pacific Writing: Representations of the Body (=  Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures ). Routledge, London, New York 2004, ISBN 978-1-134-42368-2 , pp. 38–60 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  4. ↑ a b c d Sia Figiel: About the author . In: The girl in the moon circle (=  Australasian literature: Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands ). Mana Publications, Suva, Fiji 1996, ISBN 982-02-0125-X , pp. 133 .
  5. ↑ a b c Robert Sullivan (ed.): Whetu Moana: an Anthology of Polynesian Poetry. Auckland University Press, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-86940-574-8 , pp. 112 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ↑ a b Sia Figiel. In: unionsverlag.com. Unionsverlag, accessed on February 15, 2020 .
  7. ↑ a b Margit Wolfsberger: We are like songs that are sung incorrectly. On the literature of women in Oceania . In: Frauensolidarität - Development policy initiative for women (ed.): Frauensolidarität . No. 9 . Vienna January 2005, p. 22–23 ( online via schattenblick.de ).
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g Teresia K. Teaiwa: Figiel, Sia (1967-) . In: Eugene Benson, LW Conolly (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English . 2nd ed. Taylor and Francis, Hoboken 2004, ISBN 1-134-46848-2 , pp. 499 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  9. ↑ Sia Figiel. In: kaya.com. Retrieved February 15, 2020 .
  10. ^ Coconut Milk with Freelove: A Reading with Dan Taulapapa McMullin and Sia Figiel - Asian / Pacific / American Institute at NYU. In: apa.nyu.edu. 2017, accessed on February 15, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Sia at the Dentist. In: youtube.com. 2013, accessed February 15, 2020 .
  12. ^ Sia Figiel: Diabetes took my teeth but not my life. In: cnn.com. February 21, 2014, accessed February 15, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Matt Sloane, Jacque Wilson: CNN announces 2014 Fit Nation Triathlon Challenge team. In: cnn.com. January 14, 2014, accessed February 15, 2020 .
  14. ↑ a b Jione havea: Sea of readings: the Bible in the South Pacific . Atlanta 2018, ISBN 978-0-88414-277-5 , pp. 41– ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  15. ^ Sara Vui-Talitu: Taboo topics feature in new novel by renowned Samoan author. In: rnz.co.nz. Radio New Zealand, June 5, 2018, accessed February 15, 2020 (en-NZ).
personal data
SURNAME Figiel, Sia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Samoan author
DATE OF BIRTH 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Matautu (Apia)