Transcript
The evening began with Pacific poet, writer and musican Daren Kamali warming up the crowd with the sound of Fiji.
Each Pacific nation has its own flavour when sharing stories and each storyteller has their own style.
The Moana Pacific Storytelling evening was filled with stories from Fiji and Samoa.
As well as from the Cook Islands and Tuvalu.
Tuaratini Ra'a saw a need for traditional Pacific storytelling to be told in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Ms Ra'a says the Pacifica Mamas, a group of women who teach Pacific culture to the community, was her motivation for this event.
"They are my inspiration for having really stood up as a storyteller. I started storytelling for the Mamas in 2008 when I worked with their Pacific experience programme. I facilitate that education programme for the Mamas."
Ms Ra'a gathered a number of storytellers including Tongan academic Hufanga Professor Dr 'Okusitino Mahina.
She says it took some convincing to get Dr Mahina on board, due to the different styles of storytelling from the Pacific.
"I want Tongan storytelling and he said, oh it's a dying art. We don't do it the way you do it and I said, no I don't want you to do it the way I do it. I want to know how stories are told in Tonga and he says, oh we tell stories all the time in my faikava group and I said, that's what I want to see."
Ms Ra'a wanted to prove that stories in the Pacific language would not be a barrier for the audience to understand.
She says people tend to observe the storyteller's facial expression, gestures and body movement to get the gist.
"I was really impressed with using the language particularly like there was one item where there was hardly any English, but you understood exactly what she was saying, because of the music, the actions, the expressions."
"Cook Islands was an amazing performance even though I didn't understand all the words."
"I thought it was really really good especially for our young ones because we need to carry our story telling and our stories with us."
Ms Ra'a says this is the start of more Pacific story telling for New Zealanders.
The event is part of the Pacifica Mamas exhibition called 'Turou' meaning the call from our ancestors, and it's featuring in the Pacific Heritage Arts Fono.
