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| Heather Young-Leslie |
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Biography Heather Young-Leslie |
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Click here to add a comment... The comments: billy 2007 january 2nd hi i am adding this comment because i am in a wheelchair because i had both legs amputated above the knee and i bet she is in the same position as me. |
| "This Leg is Not (Just) A Leg" We see here, 'Ana Seini Taufa, a vivacious, thirty-something mother and hardworking producer of traditional Tongan textile wealth. I first met her in 1991, and as I got to know her, I came to see 'Ana Seini as a person who embodied the idealized (and gendered) qualities of health and success: She had seven children, a husband with a fishing boat who was also a sextant in the church, parents with one of two retail shops in the village; she was a major contributor to the family income and a respected member of the church choir. Unusual for a woman, 'Ana Seini had also achieved the status of "malanga" [preacher] in the Wesleyan church. In 1992, when this photo was taken, she had amassed an impressive stock of pandanus textiles, a feat of skill and physical endurance necessitated mostly by the six sets of school fees that she and her husband paid in support of their children's education. Such energy and industry were expected of any mother in their middle years but ‘Ana Seini was remarkable in that she had succeeded in living up to the ideal. In 1999 however, she stubbed her toe, the cut became septic, and then turned gangrenous. The dynamic and seemingly healthy ‘Ana Seini was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type II and her leg was amputated just below the knee. The leg you see exposed here no longer exists, and 'Ana Seini now embodies another aspect of Tongan reality: the overwhelming epidemic amongst indigenous people around the world of "adult onset" or non-insulin dependent diabetes [NIDDM]. The increase in NIDDM is associated with, among other things, globalization. Local traditions such as feasting and consumption of prestigious foods as signs of social success and sacred blessings, and gendered notions of prestige as demonstrated through immobility and non-physical labour for women, when combined with cheap imported fatty foods, has produced a nation of obese people where the signifiers of rank are also the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and, yes, amputation. |
The maternal family in Tongan culture is responsible for 'pushing up' a child's well-being and social status, through love, nurturance, gifts of ceremonial textiles, and at public ceremonies such as this First Birthday feast. In this photo, taken in 1992, Sefita, the second child of Talahiva and 'Inoke, sits on the lap of Susana, his "fa'ehuki," while Vito, the minister blesses him. Slightly behind Susana is a mound of traditional textiles --barkcloth and pandanus mats referred to as 'wealth' or koloa-- which were donated by Sefita's maternal relatives, and upon which he was enthroned until the time came for the blessing. I believe the fa'ehuki and the textile koloa signify each other, and mutually symbolize the entirety of Sefita's maternal relatives, present and past. Thus Susana and the textile wealth both embody the essence of the maternal kin who, figuratively speaking, 'push up' each child (Sefita's blond companion is my daughter Keli, to whom Susana also adopted the role of fa'ehuki). |
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"This Leg is Not (Just) A Leg" We see here, 'Ana Seini Taufa, a vivacious, thirty-something mother and hardworking producer of traditional Tongan textile wealth. I first met her in 1991, and as I got to know her, I came to see 'Ana Seini as a person who embodied the idealized (and gendered) qualities of health and success: She had seven children, a husband with a fishing boat who was also a sextant in the church, parents with one of two retail shops in the village; she was a major contributor to the family income and a respected member of the church choir. Unusual for a woman, 'Ana Seini had also achieved the status of "malanga" [preacher] in the Wesleyan church. In 1992, when this photo was taken, she had amassed an impressive stock of pandanus textiles, a feat of skill and physical endurance necessitated mostly by the six sets of school fees that she and her husband paid in support of their children's education. Such energy and industry were expected of any mother in their middle years but ‘Ana Seini was remarkable in that she had succeeded in living up to the ideal. In 1999 however, she stubbed her toe, the cut became septic, and then turned gangrenous. The dynamic and seemingly healthy ‘Ana Seini was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type II and her leg was amputated just below the knee. The leg you see exposed here no longer exists, and 'Ana Seini now embodies another aspect of Tongan reality: the overwhelming epidemic amongst indigenous people around the world of "adult onset" or non-insulin dependent diabetes [NIDDM]. The increase in NIDDM is associated with, among other things, globalization. Local traditions such as feasting and consumption of prestigious foods as signs of social success and sacred blessings, and gendered notions of prestige as demonstrated through immobility and non-physical labour for women, when combined with cheap imported fatty foods, has produced a nation of obese people where the signifiers of rank are also the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and, yes, amputation. |
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