Transcript
TUIAHAI TUI'AFITU: American music and dance, hip hop is really influential in Tonga and they promote it more than our Tongan dancing and most of my friends are into, especially hip hop music and other genres of music. When I got this opportunity they started asking, 'Can you share with us what you know about our culture?', because we got influenced by the Western music, but now I think they're starting to change their mind and start coming back to where they really supposed to listen and dance, the culture.
LYN FREEMAN: Just from the outside watching it, I think it's more demanding, the traditional dance is more demanding than hip hop, I mean physically, dance is a physical form of course, but physically it looks exhausting.
TT: Oh yes, especially Tongan dancing. It looks easy but it's not.
LF: We were talking about the traditional dance forms, but within that is it very rigid Tuiahai? The traditional dance forms or can you explore a little bit with those traditional forms?
TT: The Tongan dance is conservative.
LF: So there are strict rules that you obey?
TT: Yes, and especially the old Tongan ancient dancing, it's really strict to change it but you have to just leave it the way it is. It's more beautiful and historical.
LF: Here in New Zealand, working with dancers here, are you learning new moves or styles, do you see similarities between our dancers and your own dancers in Tonga?
TT: Oh yes, I think the Samoan siva, some of the movements are almost the same as our Tongan tau'olunga but I'm really happy and surprised. I was actually learning the poi, how to swing, the way of swinging the poi. Just the basics.
LF: How did you go?
TT: Oh my god, it was just a good experience and it was hard. It's really hard waving the poi.
LF: But that's part of the joy and of course you're teaching our dancers here also. Do they find the moves from the traditional Tongan dance forms difficult?
TT: Oh yes, especially our own people here, our own Tongan people, when they came to my workshop at Te Oro arts centre they were actually surprised, it looks easy but when they were doing the dance they actually said it was hard.
LF: Sisiuno do you remember watching this wee boy dance and thinking there was something remarkable there?
SISIUNO HELO: Yes, Tuiahai is my nephew. In our family there's a lot of music, there's a lot of dancing. Tuiahai's mother is my younger sister and is an opera sister. She divorced her husband and moved to Australia to continue studying opera and so Tuiahai was raised by my parents. He was raised in a house full of music and dancing and I knew from watching him as a young child that he would aspire to something in the arts, in the performing arts.
LF: Do you feel that he can help, are you confident that he can help to save these traditional dance forms that you clearly love and want to see preserved?
SH: Yes I tink Hai can do it. He has strong supporting systems not only within the family but also a network of friends here in New Zealand, as well as in Tonga, and we would like to support him so that he can take this further and maybe encourage and inspire other people of his age to do the same, because I really believe in what he's doing. It's something my father inspired me to do and so I see the vision continuing in Tuiahai, and I know it's a lot to carry on the shoulders of a young 23-year-old who wants to, I don't know, explore the world, but I'm very proud of him and I think he can do it.
