"Telesa: The Covenant Keeper" Book Blog Tour. The Siva Samoa Stop.

     I'm honored to have Samoan Author Lani Wendt Young stop by as part of her book 'blog tour.' She recently released a book entitled "Telesa: The Covenant Keeper."  I've already read it once (on my Droid Kindle app mind you).  Let me just tell you, all the squinting and the slight headaches from the glare of my phone was well worth it! I even bought a print copy so I can re-read it. Yep, it's that awesome. This fantastic read is filled with adventure, demon-women, romance, a hunky guy, and a beautiful girl who can't seem to control her hot flashes (especially around said hunky guy). Obviously, there's more to it than that but you'll have to pick up a copy in order to get the details. 

     It's befitting that this part of Lani's book 'blog tour' is about the Samoan Siva (siva = dance). I took some taupou pictures a couple of months ago. In honor of the Lani stopping by, I re-edited one of the images as my ode to the book cover. It's not as dramatically beautiful, but you get the idea right?
Btw excuse the way the post looks, I'm not sure why but blogger is being totally weird right now.

*ahem* 

Without further ado...Lani Wendt Young.

(insert long enthusiastic applause here)

My Samoan Siva – and Telesa.

 

My father is the High Chief of his village and so my big sister is the taupou for our village and our extended family. But she went away to university when I was very young and so (lucky me) I was often made to take over her responsibilities. How did I 'learn' how to dance the siva? When I was 8yrs old, a delegation from the University where my father worked, came to ask if I could be their entrant in the Miss Soccer Samoa Tausala pageant - a competition where young taupou would dance the Samoan siva and help raise money for their teams. My Dad said yes and asked my mum to make sure I was ready. BUT, my mum is a NZ Maori and has no clue how to dance the siva. She told the babysitter to teach me how to dance- in the space of a week- and she focused instead on what I would wear. ( Because as always, my mother knew that its the clothes that "maketh the man" or in this case, the taupou.)

Every day after school, the babysitter taught me how to siva to songs on the radio. My other mother, my Nana Peka, would help give instructions. Sio, the gardener would watch and make fun of me. The neighbors kids would come over and watch. And make fun of me. My cousins who lived down the road would sit in the shade of the hibiscus bushes and make fun of me. The cooks from the University canteen would wander over to add their ‘helpful’ critiques. And my mum would check up on my progress every so often and remind me to "Smile!" Fun, fun times aaargh..

When people ask me now, 'Who taught you how to dance the siva?" I can’t really say because there was a whole team of assorted 'teachers' who took part in my siva education. I must not have been too bad at it because after the Tausala Pageant, I kept getting strong-armed into dancing. At weddings, cultural events, tausala activities and more. And gradually, eventually, I came to love the grace and beauty of the Samoan siva.

I'm 'afakasi' ( mixed half-caste) and my grasp of the Samoan language is not 100% - so I can get a lot of hassle about not being a 'real' Samoan. Dancing the siva is one of the few times that I truly feel ‘beautiful’ and when I truly feel 'Samoan'. In my book TELESA :The Covenant Keeper Leila comes to Samoa in search of her heritage and to learn more about her cultural identity. She discovers many things about herself in the process – and among them is her gift for dancing the siva. Through her dance as the taupou, Leila is able to better identify and feel at one with her mother’s culture. (And let’s not forget, she’s able to play out one of my favorite scenes in the book where the breathtaking Daniel plays the guitar and sings his heart out on stage while Leila dances in the lead role. A combination of Glee and High School Musical all rolled into one, Polynesian style!)

Telesa:The Covenant Keeper is available as an electronic book from the following links. $5.99

Amazon Smashwords Sleepless in Samoa

For US customers, the print version can be bought from Amazon Books for $14.99.



You can read more about the TELESA writing journey and other ramblings of a slightly demented Domestic Goddess on Lani’s blog: Sleepless in Samoa