Celebrating and Nurturing Our Talented Creatives

Celebrations include the Pasifika Festival, ASB Polyfest and Auckland Arts Festival in Tāmaki Makaurau; the Canterbury Polyfest in Ōtautahi; the Moana Nui Festival in Ōtepōti; and a host of other celebrations of Pacific culture in various local and regional areas. In addition, the Fiafia concerts/showcases often held by schools and community groups before or afterwards, all provide an opportunity and platform for writers, composers, directors, costume and set designers and creators, musicians, singers, dancers, orators, artists, group and community leaders, and their support crews to express themselves and highlight or offer insight into contextual issues, in ways that are relevant, unique to and embracing of their culture and heritage.

The themes explored from year to year are as varied as the people, languages, and dialects of the Pacific: reviving ancestral chants, dances and legends, as well as engaging with more current contemporary, social, environmental, or even political issues.

Earlier in the month, I was invited to attend the opening night of ‘O le Pepelo, le Gaoi, ma le Pala’ai’ (The Liar, the Thief, and the Coward) which was a collaboration between Auckland Arts Festival, Auckland Theatre Company and I Ken So Productions, at the ASB Waterfront Theatre. The promotional brief for the show was intriguing: “Power, politics and tradition collide in this darkly comic piece. Using both English and Gagana Sāmoa, this is a modern tale of a man who’s out of step with the times and whose time is running out. Who will survive?”. But the drawcard for me was the fact that one of the playwrights who was also the director, Natano Keni, and the creative composer, Poulima Salima, were both Meko family from my youth!

The following day, which was the eve of the Pasifika Festival weekend at Western Springs (and the Tauiwi Strategy and Stationing hui at the Friary), I managed to catch up with another of my Meko family from way back, a close friend of mine, Siu Williams-Lemi, who along with her sister Leah Williams-Partington are the creatives behind Loopy Tunes Preschool Music. Both Siu and Leah were flown up that weekend from Ōtautahi, to do sets on the Aotearoa Stage at the Pasifika Festival.

Although each of the highly accomplished and talented creatives that I’ve mentioned have moved on from the Methodist parishes that they were once part of, I still claim them as my Meko family (from back in the days of Youth Treks, Pacific Christian Youth Conferences, National Christian Youth Conventions and Methodist Youth Conference). I hold a heart full of gratitude, respect and love for each of them - and the many others who do the same - for their ability to skillfully continue to connect and engage with parts of our communities that we as a Hāhi often do not.

How do we best nurture, encourage and take care of the creatives in our midst? Especially the ones that aren’t afraid to challenge societal norms or even our own individual and collective comfort zones.