More from this year’s dance competition at Te Maeva Nui.
This video is of the Tongareva team with their ura pau (drum
dance) – probably the most exciting of the competition items with a fast
beat and emphasis on hip and leg movement.It usually features boys to a greater
extent than girls.
Tongareva, also known as Penrhyn, received a B grade for
their performance.
Don’t forget, if you’re a fan of Cook Islands culture, the
ministry of culture’s DVD of the entire Te Maeva Nui celebration should be out
soon. It will include the full length performances for each night as well as
the float parade and tangi kaara (drumming competition).
Rarotonga has been buzzing for the last week or so with the
leaders from the fifteen members of the Pacific Forum gathering in the Cook
Islands for the 43rd Pacific Forum.
As well as the leaders we have observers and associates, a
number of wannabees and representatives from an alphabet of regional
organisations.
Needless to say all of these have support staff and on top
of that there are seventy or eighty media people.
We’ve got John Key and for a while we had Julia Gillard but
she chose to fly home after the
unfortunate death of five Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.
You can read about the various meetings in Cook Islands News
(or on the websites of many other Pacific news organisations.
The Forum proper opened on Tuesday evening and this video
shows the arrival of some of the Pacific leaders at the national auditorium for
the opening ceremony. This involved leaders being carried on a pa’ata by
stalwart Cook Islands warriors (some of whom are a tad overweight). They are
cheered on by school children and mamas – each country was ’adopted’ by a local
Rarotonga school with the kids meeting delegations at the airport as well as
supporting them at the opening.
The arrivals were supposed to begin at 5pm but actually got
underway a quarter of an hour early. Whatever happened to island time? This
accounts for the Cook Islands, FSM, Kiribati, Nauru and New Zealand not being
in the video. So, no John Key, but Julia Gillard was there. She was the last to
arrive on the island and was tacked on to the end of the parade. You can see
the media frenzy as she was being carried in.
Mind you, Hillary Clinton has just touched down on Rarotonga
and that prompted a population frenzy! I’ve never seen so many cars at the sea
wall (to watch the plane come in) and people at the airport waving American
flags (and cameras).
The cultural dance competition is always the highlight of Te
Maeva Nui (the Cook Islands constitution celebrations). We had ten competing
teams this year, nine of them representing the outer islands. The entries were
capped at ten so even if Rarotongan teams other than Puaikura had wanted to
take part they wouldn’t have been able to. However, many Raro residents joined
the teams representing their home islands. This sometimes meant the dance moves
weren’t as polished as they might have been but that was made up for by the costumes,
the obvious enjoyment of those on stage and enthusiasm of the audience.
This year’s theme was :Traditional language of our
communities and islands”.
This video is from Atiu’s kapa rima (action song). The kapa
rima is a story-telling dance and is usually very graceful with lots of hand
and arm movements.
Atiu’s was awarded a B grade.
The Ministry of Cultural Development will be selling a DVD
set of the whole Te Maeva Nui celebrations including full length videos of all
the dance nights. It should be ready sometime in September and can be ordered
from the ministry. Below is a list of the other DVDs available.
Ministry of Cultural Development Overseas Orders
(Postage is
for New Zealand –contact MOCD email: karioi@culture.gov.ck
for postage to other countries)
