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Street parade for Maeva Nui
Cook Islands culture alive
Sunday singing draws crowd
Energetic performances at Te Maeva Nui
Te Maeva Nui
Te Maeva Nui winners known today
Spectacular song and dance
Street parade for Maeva Nui
Sat
12 Sep
The main road of downtown Avarua turned into a dance stage yesterday as Te Maeva Nui cultural groups from across the Cook Islands paraded through town for the opening of the week of cultural competitions.
Joining the Rarotonga and outer islands teams in the parade were members of Team Cook Islands dressed in their fluorescent green training uniforms and carrying games sponsors banners.
Leading the parade were youths from the Aitutaki cultural team who danced their way through the streets.
Giving them a run for their money in the dancing stakes were the young maidens from Atiu.
At one point, both teams merged in a ‘dance off’ cheered on by visitors and locals who had poured on to the side of the road to watch the parading teams.
The team marched from the Punanga Nui Market along the main Avarua road towards the National Auditorium for the official opening of the Te Maeva Nui cultural week with the first performances held last night.
Atiuan dancers boogie on the street during yesterday’s parade.
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Team Cook Islands athletes, coaches and officials joined the Te Maeva Nui parade though Avarua yesterday morning.
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Acting prime minister and minister of culture Robert Wigmore lights the Te Maeva Nui flame and declares the week of cultural celebration open.
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Cook Islands culture alive
Mon
14 Sep
Wearing unique dancing costumes, these Mangaian maidens were a vision on stage.
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With smiling faces, Arorangi ute peformers glowed during their show.
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A Manihiki performer portrays the sadness of a father as he farewells his son.
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A stunning end to an outstanding Oire Arorangi action song performance.
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Sunday singing draws crowd
Tue
15 Sep
Singing and impromptu dancing were the order of the Te Maeva Nui imene tuki and choir section competition last Sunday.
The free evening drew a large crowd who were treated to some beautiful singing sprinkled with island flair and flavour.
While the imene tuki section had the rafters of the Are Karioi shaking as singers put their all into their performances, the choir section was a harmony of synchronised singing and dress.
Most teams went with the traditional choir robe for the performances but the Rakahanga team choir had more of a Michael Jackson feel.
The singers wore one white glove, white shirts and red neckties and cropped pants exposing white socks.
Oire Nikao singers were led by their animated conductor who showed great elevation as he leapt into the air to encourage the singers to hit their top notes.
Those that ventured out for the event walked away uplifted by the great performances on stage.
The Te Maeva Nui competition continues tonight at the Are Karioi Nui, beginning at 7pm.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Culture
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Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Culture
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Impromptu dancing during the Mangaia imene tuki.
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Tongareva were beautiful during their imene tuki performance on Sunday night.
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A harmonious Arorangi choir group.
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A couple of the members of the Filipino community get into their performance during last Saturday night’s Te Maeva Nui, and were well received by the audience. The Kiribati community will perform as tonight’s international guests at the Are Karioi Nui.
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Tongareva dancers perform a traditional box dance as part of their drum dance show.
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Nukuroa with their chant on Saturday night.
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Atiu powers into its imene tuki with gusto at the Are Karioi Nui last Sunday – more photos on pages 5, 6 and 9.
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Energetic performances at Te Maeva Nui
Wed
16 Sep
More stunning Te Maeva Nui cultural performances were seen on the stage of the packed-out Are Karioi Nui on Monday night.
The standout group on the night was Enua Manihiki performing their energetic ura pa’u (drum dance). Their performance dedicated to this year’s theme of traditional welcome and farewell had a dramatic start.
And while the team’s bamboo torch fell from the stage sending a number of spectators scrambling to put it out – their performance on stage carried on.
The dance routine was a complex one but the team on stage never missed a beat with the young dancers maintaining their fast tempo from start to finish.
Aitutaki performed a saucy pe’e which depicted the way the island used to entertain their visitors at their entertainment house (are karioi) on Maunga Pu.
Mangaia centred their ute on the atmosphere created on their island when visitors are expected. The team’s ute explained
the process in which visitors were welcomed to the island starting with the announcement of the visitors arrival, collecting and harvesting of food and the sharing the wonders of their home island.
Arorangi returned to the stage on Monday night to perform their pe’e which was based on how the village host their guests.
Showing the pleasure their visitors receive at an Arorangi kaikai was Henry Heather and Keu Mataroa who tucked into umu-cooked pork and taro on stage.
Spectators not only enjoyed the team’s pe’e but were left salivating at the sight of the eating on stage.
Enua Mauke took to the stage despite a number of their team being knocked out with the cold.
It was a small Mauke team that performed their action song but the young men and women remained graceful throughout their dance.
The northern group island of Pukapuka reminded spectators of their uniqueness with a story-telling pe’e.
Young Pukapuka men wore white paint across their faces and body which looked similar to the markings seen on Aboriginal dancers.
The team told the story of the arrival of the missionaries to their island and the initial reluctance of the people to welcome them.
However the people of Pukapuka soon warmed to their visitors and the practice of warm welcomes to the island continues to this day.
Atiu performed their ute while Nikao closed the night’s dancing with their drum dance.
Manihiki maidens were positively radiant during their team’s energetic drum dance on Monday.
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Joshua Papatua and Ngamata visibly enjoyed their time on stage as part of the Mangaia team that performed their ute on Monday night.
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Claytoncy Taurarii on stage for Mauke.
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Aitutaki dancers enjoying their pe’e performed on Monday night.
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Henry Heather tucks into a roast suckling pig on stage during the Oire Arorangi pe’e.
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Arorangi women on the lookout for the visitors.
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The Pukapuka dancers white face and body paint were similar to that worn by Aboriginal dancers.
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Mauke Enua danced on despite half the team being sick with the cold.
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The Manihiki drum dance was a complex performance which the team pulled off on Monday night – more pics on page 8 and 9.
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Te Maeva Nui winners known today
Thu
17 Sep
Te Maeva Nui judges will be tallying up the scores with the cultural festival winners to be announced after the senior tangi kaara (drumming) competition this afternoon.
On Tuesday night, New Zealand High Commissioner to the Cook Islands, Tia Barrett played a staring role in the Rakahanga drum dance.
Barrett played the role of a visitor as the Rakahanga dancers showed their island’s welcoming rituals.
The drum dance was a feast for the eyes as dancers dressed in their orange and black costumes and pulled off a well-choreographed dance.
Tongareva was outstanding in their story telling pe’e (chant) that centred around the arrival of unknown visitors to the island.
In the end the uninvited visitors were lured to a kaikai by the women and as they slept off their feast, the menfolk from the island slaughtered them.
Everyone was assured after the performance that this kind of hosting no longer exists on the island.
Pukapuka performed a lovely ute -- dressed in green and yellow pareu that had the island’s name proudly displayed on their uniform.
Enuamanu (Atiu) were beautiful in their rauti costumes as they performed their action song.
The team made use of the different colours of the rauti, weaving the yellow, green and red foliage into their dance costume.
Awards will be given to the best choir, imene tuki, tangi kaara (juniors, intermediate and senior sections), costume, ute, pe’e, kapa rima and ura pa’u.
Meanwhile the trade day event, featuring arts, crafts and food stalls, gets underway opposite the Banana Court this morning, beginning at 9am.
Dressed in rustling pandanus costumes the Tongareva pe’e was a theatrical spectacle.
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The agile men from Rakahanga were a fit lot as they pulled off their high energy drum dance.
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Rakahanga maidens during their drum dance on Tuesday night.
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Atiu dancers during their action song performance on Tuesday.
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Atiu warriors on stage on Tuesday night.
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Spectacular song and dance
Sat
19 Sep
Cook Islands anthropologist Ngatuaine Maui has seen many Te Maeva Nui performances as a Ministry of Culture staff member and says that this year’s action song and drum dances have been of a high standard compared to those seen last year.
She says that a lot of work was put into these two sections by the cultural teams.
Manihiki took out the action song with their stunning action song with overall winner of the competition, Oire Nikao placing second and Arorangi was third.
Nikao, Atiu and Arorangi were the stand out teams in the drum dance taking out first, second and third places respectively.
Teams certainly put a lot of emphasis on the two more visual dances and Maui believes this also led to less powerful imene tuki and pe’e performances.
Arorangi, who took out the pe’e section last year with a thunderous spine tingling performance, still put on a good show this year but with a lot less umph and drive.
Maui says that the pe’e section, while all were wonderful performances, was lacking korero or oratory history on this year’s theme of kiriti mau tai and ve’eve’e aroa (traditional welcome and farewell).
Maui says that this year’s theme was definitely a challenge for teams to apply in their performances.
This challenge saw a lot of repetition in the performances with the sharing of food and travelling across the ocean the core theme of the majority of dances this year.
Maui says that the challenges are good because it makes team leaders research deeper into our culture to pass on the knowledge to the younger dancers.
“This is the whole point of Te Maeva Nui,” says Maui.
She says that no doubt more consideration will be given to next year’s theme to ensure that all island and vaka teams can interpret and apply the theme in their performances.
Overall Te Maeva Nui was once again a colourful and wonderful exhibition of Cook Islands culture.
As one of the last teams on stage on Wednesday night, Arorangi dancers clearly enjoyed their drum dance performance.
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Oire Nikao stepped out on stage on Friday for their kapa rima dance.
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The Arorangi action song could only be described as graceful elegance.
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Joining the kapa haka group on stage was the Maori King Tuheitia and his wife Atawhai (centre) during the international act at Te Maeva Nui this week.
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The energetic young men of Manihiki take the lead on stage.
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Aere mai! A Mangaian maiden encourages the crowd to dance along too.
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Young Aitutaki women sing about just how they look after visitors to their beautiful islands through their ute.
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A synchronised end to the well choreographed Manihiki drum dance on Monday night.
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