Friday, 25 July 2008
Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! The sounds coming from the fale on Utulei Beach in Pago Pago drew in the crowds, plus the fact that the source of the sound was the work of master Samoan tattooist Suluape Ala’ivaa.
No buzzing from a tattoo machine here, just tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap on a piece of wood that’s attached to a comb of needles. From 8am to 5pm every day, Suluape and his son, who has been handed his father’s craft, have been demonstrating their art form here at the Festival of Pacific Arts. Marking bodies, applying the ink and tapping it into skin using this ancient method – just the way it was originally done in Polynesia.
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Wednesday, 23 July 2008
I remember the first Festival of Pacific Arts I ever went to, way back in 1980 in Papua New Guinea. I was 12 years old.
Living in Port Moresby I had never seen true Polynesian dancing, the graceful arm movements, the rhythms of the drums, the swaying of hips, hands slapping chests and powerful legs bending at the knees, and the smiles – those beautiful smiles.
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Tuesday, 22 July 2008
You know you’re somewhere special when you can’t tell whether it’s the drums or your heart that’s just going boom boom.
But when the prayers, speeches and flag raising were over at the opening ceremony of the 10th Festival of Pacific Arts, I had no idea what was about to hit me. I had just told Isabelle Genoux on our radio program “In the Loop” on Radio Australia that proceedings were quite formal. And I had read that there was going to be a presentation of delegates and gifts. I did fear more sacred reflection was to be fed into my recorder. But then …
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