Sione's Wedding and Sione's 2

The infamous Sione's Wedding. One of New Zealand's more popular films. This plot revolves around 4 Samoan boys on the quest to find the perfect date in order to have permission to attend Sione's Wedding. Of the four man characters there is Michael - the leader of the group and the ladies man, Albert - the good mummys boy, Sefa - the party boy and Stan - the weird one. These characters and their stories from Sione's Wedding continue into Sione's 2: Unfinished Business. The Sione's movies cover the biggest events in a pacific Islanders life - Their wedding, and funeral.

Through out these films, something our group identified as we analysed  them was that growing up is the most predominant theme in both films. During the first film this is clearly demonstrated in the scene where the boys are called to the minister's meeting. They sit on the floor resembling primary school children as the minister tells them off and shows them everything they've each done wrong. As the film progresses we see how each character begins to make that change possible.

Michael who has notoriously dated white girls begins to change when he meets Albert's cousin, Princess, and decides she is a good Samoan girl who he'd like to settle down with. It isn't revealed until the end of the film that Princess happens to be a female version of Michael, giving him a taste of his own medicine. Of which he does not like when he reacts badly to Princess feeling up another man at the wedding she was meant to be attending with Michael.

Albert grows up by dating his work colleague, Tania. Giving him the independency he needed from his Mum to solidify Albert's transition into adulthood. Albert had the best head on his shoulders out of all the boys in the group. Being the most sensible it was he that often tried to keep the boys in line and came up with the plan to find suitable dates in order to be able to attend Sione's Wedding. In Sione's 2, Albert and Tania have taken their relationship further and bought a house together. This causes the other boys in the group, mainly Sefa and Stan to criticise Albert telling him he's changed when ironically all of them have. The only difference is Albert's grown up. To which Albert replies "so me and my woman bought a house together. Thats what people do when they, you know, grow up"

Of all the boys in their 'Duckrockers' group Sefa may have the most considerable changes. Sefa is the party boy of the group who is no stranger to coming home in the early hours of the morning with smell of alcohol stron on his breath, waking up the love of his life Leilani, only to frustrate or anger her with each passing weekend until she finally had enough and moved back to her family home. It wasnt until Leilani's pregnancy was discovered that Sefa's change begun to take motion. At first Sefa didnt respond appropriately to the news, too shocked to answer Leilani she closed the door on him once more. In the second film, Sione's 2, Sefa and Leilani have more kids and overcome their relationship issues to wed eachother finally.

Lastly, my favourite character of all, Stanley. Im not entirely sure why Stan was my favourite character. It may have been because he was the odd one out in all of the group. Stan is weird. And it is difficult to understand him, but maybe that is not the purpose of the character, he may only be there to fill in gaps of comedy the Sione's films would not possess without him. I think the main reason Stanley is my favourite is, not only for his humour, but also because in both the films he seems to struggle with his identity. Something I am very familiar with. In the first movie Stan is involved with online dating under his alter ego 'Tyrique' in which he pretend to be a stereotypical modern American Gangster with his attempts at smooth pick up lines to attract females. Ironically, in the second film, Stan becomes a devout follower of a parodic take on what seems to be the destiny church within New Zealand.

Over all I believe the Sione's movies are adequate movies to watch if they are only taken by face value or if there is nothing else to watch on a Sunday evening. Joshua Iosefa write his well known spoken word poem, 'Brown Brother,' in which he says
"...Your words are a mockery to my skin tone or colour. No but Brown Brother youve been doing that since the day you performed Cinderella, or BroTown, Sione's Wedding and do i have to metion the GC? Now i dont mean to condescend, these shows are great dont get me wrong. But can anyone explain, will there ever be a time where our representation goes deeper than putting our own skin to shame? Will the stereotype of an illiterate, unintelligent polynesian still be the same? Will it ever change? Or are we still going to sell ourselves short for a few seconds of fame?"

Sons for the return home

At first I was very reluctant to read this book, and during the beginning i found the structure quite confusing to wrap my head around. However, after persevering I came to realise that this book all too well reminded me of the previous generation in my family and how a majority of them hold the same values Sione and his family possess in this text.

i felt that, if put generally, this text could in fact relate to a majority of the previous generation of Pacific Islanders who, or their parents, immigrated to New Zealand for a better life overcoming obstacles along the way.

I found it quite interesting reading issues that were addressed, such as homosexuality. Coming from an era where it is more socially accepted to be, or know someone, who is gay. Reading the book from the perspective of an older time, where they did not possess the same values or education as we do. I found it difficult to read without feeling a tinge of frustration that at the sight of two men making love the man felt physically ill. However, it does remind me of the lack of tolerance my Dad held for the same issue.

I feel this book does a remarkable job of representing the racism towards Pacific Islanders back them. Students of today, regardless of whether they are familiar with the various cultures, still has some understanding of how Pacific Islanders were treated as being 'dirty' back then. This is illustrated when Sione and his brother try to help a man out of the dump but he pushes them away telling them to get off him and calling them 'Nazis'

Overall, I believe that 'Sons for the Return Home' is a historical text which clearly represents the living conditions of Pacific Island Immigrants to New Zealand in the 1960s so perfectly that it is still relevant today for the use of Students to understand and become familiar with.

I Will Not Make The Return Home

Transcript: 

I am no Son
And I will not make
The Return Home

I struggled
Every day
To love this country

To love the sea
As it embraces me
Keeps me company
From the window

To love the hills
Challenging my strength
Making my legs ache
Making me tough

To love the sun
Sprinkling freckles over white
Blistering my nose
Warm from the inside

I struggled
But I learned
To love this country

I am no Son
But I will not leave this place
That has become my home

Immigrant ≠ Ignorant

Sons for the Return Home

Initially, I was reluctant to start reading Sons for the Return Home. A tale about a Samoan family in the 1960s moving to New Zealand for Economic reasons? Nah, I'll pass.

Luckily for me, I did eventually get around to reading it. I found this book to be a profound look at the struggles of a family who, really, just wanted to go home. Eventually. Well that was the plan. This was always the plan for the family; Move to NZ, make some decent money, return to Samoa, and everything will be fine and dandy!

Well.

Unfortunately, these things don't always go according to plan. The parents' plans of arriving back in Samoa and reintegrating their New Zealand-adjusted sons back into island life was probably a bit fruitful in hindsight.

The book follows the younger son who, as we find out, has some severe identity issues. Is he Samoan? Is he a New Zealander? Is he a real person? You get the picture. Sonny (let's just call him that shall we?) meets a lovely papalangi (white) girl (who henceforth shall be known as 'Missy') with a family that definitely has some issues of their own (mostly in the bigotry category).

Both sets of parents really cannot seem to get along with each other's kids, which really doesn't sit well with either Sonny or Missy. This is just one of the many examples of the theme of prejudice and stereotypes that the novel throws at the reader throughout its 217 pages of general misery.

See, back in those days, New Zealanders were far less tolerant than they are now. Islanders were considered 'dirty' and were generally looked down upon.

This is what makes Sons such a landmark title. Up until its release, a lot of NZ literature was very Euro-centric. Sons offered a very different perspective at the time, and today is still raised for its portrayal of life back in that era. Not only this, but it proved that Samoan writers had something to say, and shouldn't be dismissed by European New Zealanders.

I would rarely call any work of fiction 'important'. Sure, you get works such as Harry Potter which resonated very powerfully on an emotional level and pretty much got me through most of my formative years, but is it 'important'? Not in the grand scheme of things. Wendt's novel is important because it offered an entirely different perspective on life in 1960s NZ. Something which no one else had dared to do. Sons is a brave novel for anyone, even today, to attempt to write.