Breadfruit (38 page)

“What’s the reason, then?”

Another long silence, and the three women riding with Mama Teta hold their breath—even Giselle.

“Were you scared Materena was going to go marrying someone else?”

Pito chuckles yet again. “
Oui,
maybe, but I wasn’t thinking about that when I asked her.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“I was thinking about . . .” Pito seems to hesitate. “I was thinking about… about how… how much I… how much
I love Materena. I’ve never told her this, because . . .”

“Hey, you people!” Giselle yells suddenly. “I’m having a baby
right now!
”

Rita and Materena shriek, Mama Teta veers to the side of the road, and in the confusion the tape is completely forgotten.

I owe this novel to many good people . . .

My husband and most loyal friend—thanks, Michael, for putting your own dreams aside so that I could fulfill mine.

My little tribe, Genji, Turia, Heimanu, and Toriki—thanks for the cups of tea, doing the dishes, and understanding that mothers
have dreams too. Thanks for the cuddles.

Thanks, Santi Mack, Tracy Marshall, Lisa McKeown, Terri Janke… friends and amazing women in many ways.

Laura Patterson—thanks for your encouraging words about my writing when I sent you my first three short stories. You greatly
inspired me.

Louise Thurtell, editor with microscopic eyesight—thanks for such a great job.

Last, but not the least, thank you, Katie Stackhouse, for being such a perfectionist, counting glasses of wine, and wondering
what happened to the heroine’s shell necklace.

But this revised edition of
Breadfruit
is the brainstorm of another talented and dedicated editor, Amanda Brett. Mandy, you’re the best, thank you so much for your
vision.

To you all…
maururu.

Breadfruit

A novel by

Célestine Vaite

A conversation with the author of
Breadfruit

Célestine Vaite talks about love, life, and Tahiti

Although you grew up in Tahiti, you now live with your family in Australia. What is it like to write about a place from memory?
Do you think the distance allows you to be more or less accurate in your portrayal of Tahitian life? Do you ever go back to
Tahiti for inspiration and research?

I’m in Tahiti twice a year and speak regularly to my family on the phone so I know my place and my people inside out. But
writing about them from Australia gives me the freedom to be bold. I’m not intimidated, for example, to have Materena speak
up in court and tell the judge what she really thinks about his unfair court summons. And the electricity man is in for a
real surprise as he tries to disconnect Materena’s electricity when she didn’t even receive her disconnection notice, which
is, in her mind, so
absolutely
against the law!

Then there are the taboo issues that don’t seem taboo to me at all writing on my kitchen table in Australia: teenage pregnancies,
a woman having fun with another woman, transvestites, priests and confessions . . .

When
Breadfruit
was released in Tahiti, I was quite nervous. But a year later
L’arbre a Pain
won the
Prix littéraire des etudiants,
the first time such a prize was awarded to a native. So I guess I passed the test.

You have said in interviews that you began writing because you were homesick; this is how Materena came to be. What was the
first story you wrote? With the various book contracts and deadlines you now juggle, is writing still as therapeutic for you
as it was back then?

It’s true. Pregnant with my third child and feeling very nostalgic, I began to write a short story—“The Electricity Man”—about
a woman, Materena, telling off the electricity man for daring to disconnect her electricity when she didn’t even receive a
disconnection notice. I’d lived that scene so many times in my childhood that I knew it by heart. Writing it made me feel
good, like I was back home.

The more I write about Tahiti, the more I love (and with passion!) my
fenua,
my birth land, our ways, our customs, the Polynesian sensibility, my people. Each trip home—for holidays, book fairs, or
to visit schools—gives me new issues to explore and people to develop because I’m in a constant state of fascination. I take
everything in: stories, people, colors, sounds—the whole lot!

Why did you decide to write in English, your second language? Do you think in English as you write, or do you think in your
native language and translate your thoughts? Does writing in a second language affect the way you develop your characters
or tell a story?

I always act out my dialogues (it helps me see my character as if she/he were standing right in front of me) and I talk in
French as my character—professional cleaner, teenager, doctor, etc.—would. Then I write in English. As for the narrative voice,
it comes out directly in English but with the French/Tahitian voice in my head, as if my mother or auntie were telling me
the story. Very often I’m translating literally. So it’s
Mind your onions
and not
Mind your business.

Writing in English is a lot of fun! True, it is a lot of work, but it forces me to really think about what I’m writing, and
gets me focused on the tempo, the rhythm of storytelling.

Throughout your novels, you allude to various political and economic problems in your native country. Do you, after living
and writing in another country, want to see a change in Tahiti? Or does living elsewhere make you appreciate the way things
are in Tahiti?

Becoming an avid reader at eleven years old profoundly changed the course of my life. Not only did books give me an insight
into how people lived in other parts of the world (far from my fibro shack behind a petrol station in Faa’a, Tahiti) but they
increased my vocabulary and turned me into a verbally confident young girl. And to be able to express yourself is, for me,
power and freedom.

Going back to your question now, becoming a writer has given me access to places I otherwise wouldn’t be allowed as an expatriate:
meeting politicians at the National Assembly in Paris, for example, to discuss the low literacy rate in Tahiti. Personally,
I want to see the literacy rate go through the roof!

How do cultural norms in Australia differ from those in Tahiti? Marriage, for example, is certainly treated differently in
the two cultures. How would Materena and Pito’s de facto situation be viewed in Australia as opposed to Tahiti? Which point
of view do you identify with more?

Weddings are extremely rare in my family—the last wedding was twelve years ago and went on for days. The bride wore white
and her children and grandchildren said she looked so beautiful. But we have a lot of baptisms. Priests might be telling us
to get married before conceiving babies galore, but we know what works best for us.

In Australia, it’s more,
Give me the ring and the honeymoon first, and then we’ll talk babies.

Each country their thing.

On relationships, I believe that they are tricky all over the world, ring or no ring. Two people, two hearts, two sets of
desires, two ways of upbringing, children, encrusted habits, money matters, in-laws, phew! That is a lot to take on board
. . .

Where do you tend to draw inspiration for your characters and stories? Are your characters based directly on certain people,
or are they composites of many people and observations? What was your inspiration for Pito’s character?

I have hundreds of relatives, which is very handy when you’re a writer, bless my family, but I don’t use them one hundred
percent. I take one bit from this auntie and another bit from that cousin, and I might even throw a little bit of myself in
the mix. A journalist in Finland asked me, “Don’t you get confused?” No, I don’t. By the time the camera is rolling, I know
my characters down to their last pubic hair!

As for Pito, he’s my brother and my husband, nice guys with strong ethics but oh la la, they really need their eyes opened
up a little sometimes!

My married name is Pitt, so everyone from Ulladulla immediately thought, “Pitt—Pito, of course!” But I actually chose that
name because Pito means belly button in Tahitian.

You are thirty-nine years old, with four children and three books—when do you find the time to write? Do you write at a scheduled
time each day or whenever the mood may strike? How long does it take to write a book?

Although I’m now a full-time novelist (and I thank the universe for this every morning), I still write as I did ten years
ago—at key points in my day, in between looking for socks, cutting onions, hanging clothes on the line, brooming, waiting
for my youngest two children at the bus stop, sitting on the beach while they surf, organizing paperwork and other things
for my older two children, etc. So at key points during the day I’m furiously writing down ideas (when I ask myself, what
happens next?) and words for my dialogues (when I ask myself, what issues will my characters talk about here?), and then when
the night comes and all is quiet, I jump on my laptop and furiously type away.

Breadfruit
is a part of a trilogy, following the inimitable Materena and her life on a Tahitian island. When did you realize that you
were writing a trilogy? Why did you decide to continue writing about Materena?

I wasn’t expecting a trilogy out of Materena and her family with the aunties, the cousins, the extended family—
Breadfruit
was it. But Materena came back to haunt me (write about me again!) and
Frangipani
was born. Halfway through writing it, though, I knew there had to be a third book, one last one for the road.

People ask me if there’s one more book about Materena on the horizon, one more, just one. There isn’t. I love Materena to
bits, she’s a wonderful and fun woman to be with until the early hours of the morning, but she has fulfilled her purpose now.
It is time for her to go. She can put her broom to rest.

Questions and topics for discussion

1.
Breadfruit
is, fundamentally, a story about love—above all, the love between Materena and Pito. How did you feel about Pito and Materena’s
relationship? How did their respective views of love differ? What do you think it was that made Materena want to get married
after sixteen years of never thinking about it? Why was Pito so opposed to the idea at first?

2. When Materena begins covertly gathering information for her wedding, did you share in her excitement, or worry she was
going to get hurt? Why do you think the author detailed Materena’s secret wedding research? Did Materena learn anything (other
than prices) when she inquired into Cousin Moeata’s cakes, Mama Teta’s car, and the seemingly excellent deal on the new bed?

3. In
Breadfruit,
Vaite set out to re-create the Tahiti she knew from her childhood—complete with an almost comically large extended family.
What role did Materena’s family, both immediate and extended, play in her everyday life? How would you characterize the women
in her family? How would you characterize the men? Are their roles similar to or different from the gender roles in your family?

4. What did you make of the story of Loana and Materena’s father? Why do you think Loana put “father unknown” on the birth
certificate, and why did she take so long to tell her daughter the truth? Did the story give you insight into Materena’s relationship
with her mother? Did it shine any light on Materena’s relationship with Pito?

5. Materena lives in a small Tahitian town, with little access to the outside world and to the conveniences and luxuries we
enjoy in many parts of America. And yet the characters in
Breadfruit
are acutely aware of the way the world is changing. In what instances do you see Materena and her family attempting to balance
Tahitian tradition with modern beliefs? Would you identify any of the novel’s characters as “traditional” or “modern”?

6. Vaite’s characters face numerous difficulties in their lives, and yet no one in the novel is unhappy. Does this surprise
you? Why do you think the author writes of hardship in such a jovial manner? With only a few overt political references, do
you consider
Breadfruit
a political novel? Why or why not?

7. On one hand, Materena and her family are Roman Catholic. On the other hand, they find comfort in Tahitian beliefs that
predate the arrival of Catholicism on the island. How do these two ways of thinking differ, and how are they similar? What
role does spirituality play in the characters’ lives?

8. Why do you think Célestine Vaite chose the title
Breadfruit
for this novel? Can you think of a particular passage or episode in the story that relates to the title? What does the title
mean to you?

C
ÉLESTINE
V
AITE
grew up in a big extended family in Faa’a, Tahiti, where storytelling was part of her everyday life. She now lives with her
family on the south coast of New South Wales.

. . . and her celebrated novels

Célestine Vaite is the first native Tahitian ever to receive the coveted
Prix littéraire des étudiants,
which she was awarded twice—in 2004 for
Breadfruit
and in 2006 for
Frangipani
. Both novels have been published in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Finland,
the Netherlands, Brazil, France, Germany, and French Polynesia.
Frangipani
was also short-listed for the 2005 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and long-listed for the 2006 Orange Prize in the United Kingdom.
Vaite’s third novel about Materena Mahi and her family,
Tiare in Bloom,
will be published in 2007.

An excerpt from the opening pages of
Frangipani
follows.