The US Congress has designated the month of May as “Asian-Pacific Islander” month in the United States and a profusion of festivals venerating Polynesian culture can be experienced wherever there is a large population of Pacific Islanders.
The San Francisco Bay area has a large population of Tongans and Samoans and Hawaiians. Being a member of the City of Foster City’s Arts and Culture Committee (similar to an Arts Commission), Arerangi Tongia’s wife, Cindy Atuirangi-ki-Tuakirikiri Cowell-Tongia,14 years ago proposed the creation of an educationally-themed Polynesian festival.
“Even though we moved to Las Vegas five years ago, we agreed to come back to my home town once a year and continue to voluntarily produce the festival, which has become a city favourite,” says Cindy Cowell-Tongia.
This year’s educational theme was “Defining Identity – What’s in a Name”, where the audience was taught different customs relating to naming children, marriage names, death names, event names and even place names and how pehe get their names.
Two special Cook Islands guests traveled to California for the festival – Ngarima George (“Papa G”) and Tuaine Tou-Gooding.
Papa G was particularly impressed that many of the dance teams were able to perform songs and dances from all of Polynesia; not just Hawaii and Tahiti, says Cowell-Tongia.
“Tou-Gooding was delighted to see dancers of all ages, from small three-year-old children up to the Mamas – ages unknown, but beautiful dancers, nonetheless,”
“Papa G was also amazed that almost 12 of the dance teams that performed used live musicians, and they were excellent. They could give Cook Islands musicians a run for their money.
“These musicians and singers take their jobs seriously.
You can tell they practice, practice and practice even more.”
Cowell-Tongia says Papa G and Tou-Gooding agreed that watching the dance groups in California made them proud to be Polynesian in general and Cook Islanders in particular.
(Source: Cook Islands News 17 May 2017)
