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The Songmaker's Chair
Auckland, one summer weekend. A family fused together by the energies of multicultural Aotearoa New Zealand faces meltdown as tensions build between migrant and New Zealand-born generations, and between Samoan, Mâori, and Pâlagi family members. Why is it we've strayed this far?
We think we've found a firm fit to this land.
To our children and mokopuna it's home.
That's good enough pe ‘a o‘o mai le Amen
and Papatûânuku embraces us ...
We think we've found a firm fit to this land.
To our children and mokopuna it's home.
That's good enough pe ‘a o‘o mai le Amen
and Papatûânuku embraces us ...
140 pages, Paperback
First published February 18, 2004
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39 people want to read
About the author
Albert Wendt
47 books61 followersAlbert Wendt was born in Apia, Samoa.
Wendt's epic Leaves of the Banyan Tree (1979) won the 1980 New Zealand Book Awards. He was appointed to the first chair in Pacific literature at the University of the South Pacific in Suva. In 1988 he took up a professorship of Pacific studies at the University of Auckland. In 1999 Wendt was visiting Professor of Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Hawaii. In 2001 he was made Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to literature. In the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours he was appointed a member of the Order of New Zealand.
Wendt's epic Leaves of the Banyan Tree (1979) won the 1980 New Zealand Book Awards. He was appointed to the first chair in Pacific literature at the University of the South Pacific in Suva. In 1988 he took up a professorship of Pacific studies at the University of Auckland. In 1999 Wendt was visiting Professor of Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Hawaii. In 2001 he was made Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to literature. In the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours he was appointed a member of the Order of New Zealand.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 30, 2013
The book was fabulous and I couldn't help but think of the author while I was reading it. I had the opportunity to meet him when he came to visit my school and he is so brilliant. I recommend this book to anyone with Polynesian roots especially because I think it will be really relatable.
March 14, 2019
Wendt is a celebrated Samoan author, who emigrated to New Zealand, and is now a University level English professor and writer. The book is in the form of a play (I'm assuming derived from his own family experiences) about a Samoan family who moved to New Zealand, intermarried with Maori and other cultures, and struggles to find balance in a multicultural world with its many seductions. In places it is light; in places heartbreaking. There is a lot of Samoan language in the play (translated by footnote to an index in the back), which hung me up a bit! I knew more when I finished it than I imagined I would.
June 10, 2007
Once again another moving piece of prose by Albert Wendt
Seeing Nathan Lees play the father figure made me cry especially the moment of death, when the Owl (family Omen)
takes his spirit into the underworld of the dead.
Seeing Nathan Lees play the father figure made me cry especially the moment of death, when the Owl (family Omen)
takes his spirit into the underworld of the dead.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews