Mere Tuilau

Bula !
I'm Mere Tuilau.
A believer and weaver. 

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​Poem background
One of the conferences I attended, I was asked not to address “the elephant in the room” in the name of “diplomacy” .So I named this piece, “The elephant in the room” .
 
The elephant in the room
 Diplomacy….Diplomacy?
 
Swallowing my mixed em(Ocean),
I stood up and said
Excuse me, I need some air.
With thoughts rushing,
Anger rizing,
Feet rushing,
Soul hurting,
Face blushing,
Heartbeat accelerating,
I burst into tears on my way through the hallways
and into the bathroom to hide myself…..
in the name of “diplomacy”
 
What is relationship without principles?
Without it’’s values?
What is history without evidence ?
What are humans without feelings ?
What is hurt without its wound?
What are lessons without learning?
What are we, without each other?
 
How can we  look at Britain, France and U.S in the eye and have historical amnesia?
Or how can the devils empire look at us in the eye and say "For the Good of Mankind" ?
 
Thoughts of my ancestors crying,
Mother screaming in the delivery room
Sisters dying
Fathers blind
Brothers displaced
My family in crisis
My emOcean drowning
 
“Diplomacy”
 
Not him, not her, not them, but us.
US who carries the weight,
the burden of proof,
To prove the suffering,
the biggest aggression of our lives.
 
“Diplomacy” 
 
Where our tears and sacrifices are being politicized
Where Love is being tested
Where hearing is being tested
Where humanity is being tested
 
“Diplomacy”
 
Hear us in our rawest self.
Hear us to hear our ancestors cry freely
Hear us to let our generation live freely
a future where we can dream freely
Na numa noqu Waitui.
 
We look back to look forward
We look back to pause
We look back to set sail

The Ocean creates lives
The Ocean hubs lives
And the Ocean is live

Protect our waitui.

First and foremost, Bula Vinaka!
 I would like to acknowledge the artists, Luisa Tuilau and Tyler-Rae Chung for this piece that we collaborated on.
 
Secondly, we titled it as:
 Art is in the eye of the behold" ~ Margaret Wolfe Hungerford.
 As we love to keep our art piece open for interpretation.

This work was originally submitted to APLN’s 2022 Pacific Islands Creative Competition.

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DON’T TELL ME…
Dear MSG Leaders;
Please don’t tell me you know how I feel
I’m like a caged animal wanting to be free
Please don’t tell me you’ve heard all my pleas
I’ve been begging for mercy but all I found was a wall made of steel
Please don’t tell me you see my deepest need
If you did I wouldn’t still be in chains but turning over a new leaf

Don’t tell me someday I’ll hear laughter and joy
I don’t want to dream it but love living it more
Don’t tell me someday I’ll be able to move on with time
It’s not just a part but I want to leave it all behind
Don’t tell me someday I’ll be normal again and free from pain
Because innocence I won’t get back for its freedom I long to gain

What you can tell me is you will be here for me
That you will listen to my cries, my pleas, my deepest need
You will see to it that my family is freed from politicians greed
The greed to grind us like dirt with no mercy
Please take up your pen and papers for swords I’ve seen enough of
Fight for one of your own if not your voice but your words
Sealed with the power of love and identity as fellow brothers
It may just give you a chance to redeem yourself in times final hours

I hope you realize that I will never be the same
But if you help me today you will like whom I’ll be someday
Out of the shelters of history’s shame
Up from a past that is rooted in pain
Free to climb the highest mountain and set sail again
Paying my freedom with freedom to those like me today.
Mere Tuilau