Page 46 - Fiji Traveller 2024 Issue 6

Continued from page 35

(the red pandanus necklace worn by Samoan chiefs and orators).
These images, and the sense of freedom and family they suggest, stilled an
initially restless audience in Samabula, Nawalowalo said.
“I was trying to incite the memory of something where they can feel that
freedom. And I think water…for Pacific children, the ocean is theirs. That’s a very
important, powerful motif and I also love the idea of it connecting to the womb,
connecting to innocence.”
Nawalowalo also met with young Fijians involved in the film industry during her
recent visit to the country.
“It was brilliant…What it was about was really opening up their own creative
pathways,” she said.
She believes there is huge scope for local storytelling, noting the desire of
some participants to make documentaries about things happening in Fiji that are
‘sort of buried’.
A Boy Called Piano includes footage from the New Zealand Royal Commission
of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, which looked into what happened to children, young
persons and vulnerable adults while in State care, or in the care of faith-based
institutions between 1950 and 1999.
Fa’amoana John Luafutu was the first Pacific Islander to testify at that Inquiry
says Nawalowalo.
In one of the film’s pivotal scenes, District Court Judge Ida Malosi (herself of
Samoan heritage) says to Fa’amoana: “On behalf of all of our people, all of our
community, I claim you… I stand for the might of our people, and I honour you,
because you show the best of our people.”
It is a moment of healing, that speaks to the journey Nawalowalo hopes her
art takes.
“I believe that, in order to heal, or in order for society to be able to face the real
things that happen, we have to work out how to discuss them and bring them
to the surface. So I think art and I think film and theatre allows us to reflect on
society in many ways,” Nawalowalo said.
The director is now working on a New Zealand- Fijian story.
“I have a Fijian story that I've been developing, and it is the right time to come
back to myself and my own identity,” she said.

46