Figgy teaching media at the Kaibab reservation in Arizona. Photo Courtesy Melissa Nelson.Esther "Figgy" Figueroa and I met at CSA (Caribbean Studies Association Conference) 2005. She is a Jamaican linguist and filmmaker living in Hawai'i. At CSA, she talked about parallels between the Caribbean and Oceania as part of a series of seminars entitled "Islands of Globalization," a project that brings academics and professionals from both regions together to create more awareness by each region of the other. In 1985, Figgy along with Heather Haunani Giugni started Juniroa Productions, Inc., one of the first independent production companies to produce Hawaiian and local content for Hawaiian communities and Hawai'i TV.
Here is a cut and paste of the first installment of an instant message chat with Figgy. We talked about feminism in both regions, how Jamaica has come to embody the Caribbean in the eyes of many in the world, Figgy's own personal beef with Puerto Rico where she lived as a teen, Caribbean studies etc.
Alice says:
So how and why did you, a Jamaican among many other things, decide to move to Hawai'i where you have lived for 20 years now?
Esther says:
well i came to hawai'i with my then lover - we had met in dc and we moved to hawai'i together
Alice says:
I heard you talk at CSA 2005 about this concept of "islandness" which seems to link the Caribbean to the Pacific. Can you talk to us a little bit more about that? I'm assuming it was one of the concepts that informed "Islands of Globalization".
Esther says:
yes islandness - in the islands of globalization project, we started out trying to explore the concept of islandness - looking at such work as antonio benitez-rojo's "repeating islands" - it's a concept that can only go so far - i mean islands come in many sizes and forms - but there is something about being on an island especially a small island rather than a continent or large land mass - there is the question though of how one got to the island and that's part of the differentiation between island histories - some of the things we consider about islandness is of course the relationship to the ocean - also the question of how people things and ideas circulate in the world
Alice says:
Who's Benitez-Rojo?
Esther says:
the cuban writer antonio benitez-rojo who unfortunately died this year. he wrote about the caribbean archipelago as "repeating islands" repeating islandness such as a rythm of life but also having repeated historical structures such as plantation economies etc. - this is one way we can see the caribbean and pacific linked
Alice says:
How and why did you become involved with Islands of Globalization?
Esther says:
i became a member of the project when my friend katerina teaiwa brought me in - when the project was just getting off the ground she introduced me to jerry finin the principal in the project and i became part of the team - it was a natural given that i am from the caribbean live in the pacific and go back and forth between the two. the project was a life saver for me in many ways because it was both intellectually stimulating and was emotionally satisfying bringing together the different parts of myself
Alice says:
How do Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders perceive the Caribbean?
Esther says:
the pacific is a huge place and so it differs depending on historical relationships and exposure - for example the british commonwealth pacific and the british commonwealth caribbean have a lot in common because of british colonisation - so fiji and jamaica for example are similar physically - fiji and trinidad have some similar issues over race having to do with imported south asian labour - that sort of thing - the deeper the contact the likelier some sort of understanding - but barring that we all rely on mass media myths about each other -
we share tropical paradise myths about each other - the strongest connection though is music - reggae music is huge in the pacific and so the caribbean to the pacific is really more jamaica (or in some cases bob marley!) and reggae music - and sort of the tropes that go along with that - political resistance, ganja, anti colonialism, rasta religiosity - those sorts of things
Alice says:
Doesn't the Caribbean = reggae to most of the world at this point?
Esther says:
well i'm not sure it is the caribbean - unless the caribbean gets conflated with jamaica which i think is really a problem! i've found that most people really don't know about the caribbean at all and that they often mean jamaica - my cousin who is the jamaican ambassador to japan and serves the whole asian region has told me that the caribbean is simply not on the map - we are subsumed under latin america - well within the caribbean i think because of reggae music and other things the caribbean to a great part of the world is unfortunately subsumed under jamaica - this of course is not the case with the spanish speaking caribbean cuba - the dr - puerto rico - but they are often not even considered caribbean and get subsumed under latin america. and then of course there is the francophone caribbean and that's a whole other thing all together!
Alice says:
How so?
Esther says:
well i think there you have two extremes - you have haiti - "first in freedom!" and then you have the french colonies - how the music, literature, etc. of guadeloupe and martinique circulates in the world is very dependent on french colonial structures in a way that isn't the case with say reggae - then haiti has in some ways a unique situation (of course in other ways not at all unique)
Alice says:
So you were trained as an academic (linguistics and Chinese I believe) but chose instead to be a filmmaker. Why?
Esther says:
well i think of myself as all those things and more - i was born and raised at UWI mona where my dad was professor of education - and the intellectual life and scholarship and all that is just second nature - so i enjoy research and teaching and the fellowship of the academic life but i observed things about the exploitative feudalistic and elite nature of the academic life filled with pettiness and absurdities that i didn't want to be part of so i have three academic degrees including a phd and i'm happy for that - i hang out in universities and enjoy them - but my freedom matters way more to me. i fell into media making and stayed there because of the freedom it gives me - the creativity - as well as the ability to help people have a voice to counter the hegemony of mass media and miseducation and to possibly influence social justice
Figgy at a media training for children at the Kaibab reservation in AZ. Photo Courtesy Nicola Wagenberg.Alice says:
So the film company you created, Juniroa Productions, produced some groundbreaking work. How do you feel about that?
Esther says:
it's mixed - on the one hand it's very satisfying to know that i helped to create a record of a time and place and have an infrastructure through which people could communicate and be heard - barry barclay the maori film maker talks about the difference in the way value accrues to the type of work we do versus say a block buster - the work that perpetuates indigenous knowledges -local knowledges- that recreates memories that allows for continuities and cultural revitalization accrues over generations as opposed to a block buster commercial movie which is judged in terms of the first weekend of sales - the fact that value accrues over time means that one often feels a sense of not just marginalization but futility as to whether what one does makes any difference at all but then there are moments when you look back at your work and realize yes it did matter - at the same time you struggle with the basics of the material like how to pay the bills and as you get older it gets harder and harder to face the uncertainties of the independent film making life
Alice says:
So you are a pretty adventurous woman who's lived in both the Caribbean (Jamaica and Puerto Rico) and Oceania. Any observations about the ways in which each of these regions deals with feminism and women?
Esther says:
yikes - i haven't been back to puerto rico in 30 years - i tried to get there this year but flights within the caribbean are becoming more and more impossible - you can no longer go directly from jamaica to puerto rico - anyway - i have never been in a more sexist and woman hating place as puerto rico - sure hope it's improved in 30 years - jamaica is way more complicated - women in jamaica are very strong and powerful at the same time all the "formal" sector institutions are run by men - and there is all this nonsense about the endangered male that leads to even more special allowances and priveleges for males in jamaica - in the pacific it differs wildly from place to place. hawai'i is the safest place i've ever lived as a woman - i go anywhere any time alone and have never had a bad experience ever - this doesn't mean that hawai'i is not sexist - it is extremely so - so as far as i can tell patriarchy is alive and well everywhere and takes different forms and has different accomodations and realities for women
Alice says:
What does your crystal ball have to say about the field of caribbean studies?
Esther says:
would be great if the caribbean actually took caribbean studies seriously so that the caribbean was the repository and depository (instead of the universities of north amerika and europe) of all that the caribbean has given to the world - would be great if we were producing the curricula and materials out of the caribbean and that the caribbean benefited and would be great if caribbean studies was also outward looking and considered horizontal connections with regions like the pacific instead of always being in reaction to the colonial metropoli and the supposed centers of power.
Please leave any questions you have for Figgy in the comments section.
(Part 2 to follow)
------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment