In a bid to support and promote local writers, the Fiji Museum handpicked Adi Tulia Nacola as the first representative for an exciting new literary project.
The museum came across a copy of her debut book four months ago and was impressed by her talent and dedication to storytelling.
Her book launched last Thursday served as the pilot episode of upcoming literary endeavours. The goal of the project is to empower local communities through various initiatives, including talanoa sessions, public readings, literacy programs, and more, with a special emphasis on decolonising Pacific literature.
“There are very few supplementary texts, and this is a contending issue,” said Fiji Museum head of special projects Katrina Igglesden.
“We want to localise what we sell, and we do have some, but we need more. We need more motivational truth-telling stories, stories that portray the Fijian grassroots issues.”
Mrs Nacola’s journey as an author had been a labour of love and passion. Her second book, “The Brown Dress,” took four years to complete and was published in 2021.
The novel delves into the lives of women in remand, who grapple with fear and judgment from society because of their past mistakes.
Mrs Nacola’s encounter with these women revealed the transformative power of gratitude and the desire to push back against prejudice.
“I was grateful to meet them because they taught me the value of gratitude,” she said.
“When I had asked them why they wanted to share their story they said they wanted to push back against people who refuse to accept them because of a couple of bad decisions.”
Her debut book, published in 2019, Strength of a Name, centred on her family’s heritage and played a powerful role in bringing her family closer together.
Mrs Nacola said while working on her second book, she often had to take breaks to emotionally re-centre herself.
“There were times when I had to step away and take a while to re-gather myself. The story was so sad to me.”
Nevertheless, she expressed her gratitude for their willingness to open and share their experiences.
The books, priced at $20 each, are available at the Fiji Museum bookshop, and anyone interested in purchasing a copy or aspiring to publish their work can approach the Bookshop supervisor or visit the museum’s book center.
Ms Igglesden said the museum was open to working with anyone interested in storytelling.
