Galumalemana Alfred

Books

Living life to a Pacific beat

Pacific Island Drums. Videotape by Allan Thomas and Maori and South Pacific Arts Council. SNZ2S (video & booklet).

Available from MASPAC, PO Box 1095, Wellington.

Reviewed by Wendy Pond

Galumalemana Alfred

Hunkin, chairman of the organis ing committee for the 1989 Pacific Drum Festival in Wellington, regards drumming as a central feature of Pacific Island life.

“Drums in all our Pacific Island cultures make you want to dance, make you want to listen to important messages . . keep you in time with work . . keep you in touch with your community.”

The videotape made from this event is a documentary of multiculturalism, strengthening appreciation of Pacific arts in students, scholars, traditions experts and home viewers. There is an instruc tive purpose in its workshop view of musical life. Orchestras of drums which incorporate biscuit tins, weaving boards and glass bottles are a visual warning that it may not be the instruments themselves in which the art lies.

This documentary of the sociality of drumming and dancing amongst Pacific islanders gives glimpses of actions which the observer might not have see him/ herself. We move backstage amongst the drummers end-on to the dancers, looking along a row of coordinated leg and arm movements; front of house amongst the high-ranking guests in the audience. We see the coordination be tween drummers and dancers; the inter action between performers and audience; the input of supporters, the building up of spirit and exhilaration. Now a mature matron dances outside the bounds of decorum behind a line of young men articulating their weapons with military precision. The drummers beat faster, the young men leap with greater agility, and now the clown’s burlesque serves to highlight their dexterity.

Listen to the drumming of each group.

Does it drive the dance? Does it send signals to the dancers? Does it blend with other sounds? Does it add another rhythmic pattern to the dancers’ foot work? Leading remarks by Galumalemana challenge the viewer.

At the festival each group appointed its own commentator and made its own selection of content. To prepare for the event the participants interviewed elders, phoned overseas experts and revived instruments not heard at previous gath erings, so that traditional drumming skills have been researched, practised and performed before critical audiences.

The Cook Island Council (commen tator Pae Tuteru) opens the videotape

with an orchestra of slit gongs and skin drums accompanying a drum dance ( ura pan) and then an action song [kapa rima).

The performance they give excels in

fluidity and passion.

The Fiji Community (commentator

Seru Vatucicila) shows us a vakamalolo dancer accompanied by slit gong drum ming. Here we see the art of unison in hand actions. The women, still in costume, join the drummers to support the men’s meke moto dance. Fijian drum mers then demonstrate an impressive array of rhythms that signal the call to

morning prayers, burning of a village,

burial of a high chief and evening curfew.

The St James Niuean group (commen tator Hale Pahetogia) presents meke and tame dances, with an orchestra of slit gongs, skin drums, tea chest bass ( selo ) and bottle chimes.

The Samoan Methodist Youth Fellow

ship of Hataitai (commentator Jacob

Taule’ale’a) shows us a different range of accompaniments: a rolled mat, a fan (also used to keep order), coconut cups

clapped by performers, body-slapping,

and wooden slit gongs. A racing boat crew keeps its strokes in unison in time to a whistle blown by the conductor.

The Naenae Tokelau Community (commentator Ineleo Tuia) presents its leading musical instrument, the pokihi.

This is a plywood box beaten with the flat of the hand to accompany the renown fatele dance. We are also shown the oldest of accompanying drums: the

papa , a sounding board appropriated

from the women’s weaving house for the ancient hiva hahaka dance. The Tonga Wesleyan Methodist Group from Petone

(commentator Edward Schaaf) begins

with a dexterous display of drumming to accompany the seated ma’ulu’ulu dance.

During the kailao war dance, the camera shows us the relation between the drummers who set the pace on their instruments and the dancers who ma nipulate their spears while keeping time with their legs.

As the experience of these perform ances accumulates, the viewer comes to appreciate how each person contributes to the richness and warmth of the item, for the sake of the group’s reputation.

This gives Pacific Island performances passion and challenge. But you have first to accommodate to the shock of focusing at hand and foot level, of finding yourself amongst the back row supporters, of viewing musical activities not recorded in the literature.

The accompanying booklet is a man ual of definitions, texts, photographs and commentaries. The videotape is an unusual perspective and it took me a while to hone in. But, as the camera follows the social experience of perform ance, this is society life on the rise. □