Bula vinaka, Kia ora, talofa lava, malo e lelei, kia orana.  

I’m in love. I’m in love with a group of young Pacific Island and Maori poets, wordsmiths, writers, and musicians from in and around South Auckland. They are South Auckland Poets Collective, and for me, they were the best performance this Dunedin Fringe.

SAPC, with the support of Youthline, was formed by Ramon Narayan, Grace Taylor and Daren Kamali in November 2007. My only quibble is with the lack of a programme, so if I have misspelt names and misquoted poem titles, so be it. SAPC are: Grace Taylor, Daren Kamali, Ramon Narayan, Zane Scarborough, Maryanne Pale and Solomon Brown. They were supported by Dunedin guest poets Richard Ratahi, and the ever astonishing David Eggleton.

SAPC were brought together by a mutual love for writing, music and performance poetry. They aim to replace the negative stereotypes of Pacific and Maori youth living in Manukau, as portrayed by the media, with real stories.

This is poetry, Jim, but not as we know it. This is poetry filled with passion, vibrantly embodying the struggle of an urbanised youth to find a sense of identity and community, when, to quote Taylor, you live caught between three cultures. This is poetry formed by an aesthetic of hip-hop and reggae, a stripped down musicality, and an underlying choppy seductive rhythm  on the edge of song.

In the case of both Ratahi and Brown, this literally becomes song. Brown, in particular, is possessed of a sweet melancholy voice and a lyrical turn of phrasing. Ratahi, who is teaching in Dunedin, seemed initially nervous, pausing to gather his thoughts and his pages, but recovered to end with a pop song. 

I was particularly struck by the professional quality of the performance. The show had a peculiarly warm and collective feeling; performers introduced each other, performing individually, in duos, as a group. No time was wasted in between poems with technical adjustments. Overall a smooth and choreographed flow.

This was poetry hungry to communicate and to educate. But ultimately it was impelled by a real understanding that to do this effectively, first you must seduce and entertain. If sometimes the ideology overwhelmed the poetics, well, with such a tasty buffet of pieces it was easy to politely push to the side of the plate that poem, and await eagerly the next performance.

Kamali and Narayan were both charismatic and melodious, but Scarborough was particularly outstanding. His poem – I think called ‘Superheroes’ – was a warm and funny piece demanding colourful and politically incorrect heroes to inspire the next generation of children. ‘G E Money’ was a scathing indictment of the destruction caused by finance companies, and should be compulsorily performed for every politician who publicly bemoans the inability of the poor to manage financially.

It seemed especially appropriate that David Eggleton was on stage with this group. Eggleton grew up in Auckland, and has been portraying the conflicts and complications found within an emerging culture in his many previous collections of poetry. A stand-out for me was his performance of the poem ‘Manukau Mall Walk’, from his 2001 collection Rhyming Planet.

SAPC came, speaking, rhyming and singing, and left. They left behind, in this grey rainy city, a smell of sunshine, sweaty clothes, and spicy foods from a South Auckland dairy. They told us stories of loss and love, poverty and prostitution, but their message was full of hope: “I wanna be me . . . I want to be the best I can be / Share my love for poetry.” Come back soon.
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