I step into the future backwards,
so my past is always before me.
.........Maori Proverb

I am originally from New Zealand. My great, great grandmother was a Maori princess and her name was Erena Pareraukawa. The Maoris arrived in New Zealand about 1,000 years ago. and the canoes that brought them across the Pacific each had a name. Erena's ancestors came in a canoe called the Tainui. Since then, all descendants of the canoe are recognized as belonging to the Tainui tribe.

By tribal law Erena could not marry anyone outside of Maori royalty but after she met a handsome French immigrant by the name of Louis DiHars, she was so swept off her feet by his charm that she broke all the rules and married him anyway.

My great, great grandfather (Erena's husband, Louis), was born around 1820 in Libourne, France. After his brother was killed in the French Foreign Legion, Louis’s parents, fearing for the safety of their last remaining son, sent him as far away from France as possible. Louis led an exciting life in the growing colony of New Zealand. He lived among the Maori people and became fluent in their language. In time the Government hired him as an official interpreter between the Maori and the English, especially in the negotiation of land deals.

In 1992 the descendants of Louis and Erena's eight children organized a family reunion and rented an entire town to accommodate the 4,600 family members who had registered for the four-day gathering. It was very moving to be in attendance with so many other relatives as the Maori elders chanted and wailed their traditional sacred Maori welcome. Return to Top

As a child I read books written by the beloved English children's author, Enid Blyton. My favorite stories were from two of her series called, The Famous Five, and The Secret Seven. I also loved listening to a radio show called Tusitala – a Samoan word meaning "Teller of Tales". They were stories written by Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish author who also wrote "Treasure Island". In the latter part of his life Stevenson lived on the Polynesian Island of Samoa. After he died there in 1894, the people honored the famous storyteller by burying him in a revered location atop a mountain called, Mt. Vaea. Return to Top

I spent a lot of my early life writing poems and songs. At the time I couldn't play any musical instruments, so I would just hum the melody to go with the lyrics. I also created plays where I would round up all the neighborhood kids and cast them as the characters in my stories. After rehearsing for a short time (and believe me, it was usually a very short time), we would present the production in my friend's garage. Chairs were set up on the driveway in front of the garage for the invited guests (the neighbors and parents of the cast), and for refreshments, someone's mother would supply biscuits or fruit cake, and glasses of soda. Dressed in a strange assortment of costumes, we performers would then act out our play inside the garage, manually raising and lowering the heavy wooden door for the many scene changes. Unfortunately, these scene changes were often long and lengthy as the stage hands were also the ushers, the sound technicians, the prop masters, the actors, etc. I loved melodrama and always wanted the audience to be moved by my stories so I would make sure all my main characters died at the end of each play. Return to Top

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