Fiji Language Week

Join us on Saturday 8 October for Fiji Language Week, as the young performers of Te Mana Performing Arts (School of Fijian Language, Dance and Culture) celebrate their language! They will perform a sequence of short dances and songs, using the many legends that form part of the Fijian cultural heritage. 

At 12PM, enjoy an intimate performance surrounded by Fijian taonga in the Pacific Lifeways Gallery, followed by the main event in Te Ao Mārama South Atrium starting at 12.30PM.

Our young Fijian performers will take us on a metaphorical journey about the original settlement of the Fijian archipelago by their ancestors.

How do you revitalise the making of an indigenous taonga where museums are the only place that you can see them today?

Bringing Back the Forgotten: The Ulumate Project  is based on an old Fijian practice of wig ceremonies over two centuries ago. Watch the recording of Na Tolu – The Three in talanoa as they share their work and research into the Ulumate Project at the Museum.

EXPLORE

As we move into Macawa ni vosa Vakaviti, Fiji Language Week, I want to celebrate the strength, courage and determination of the beautiful people of Fiji as they continue to work through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The theme for this year's Macawa ni vosa Vakaviti is Noqu Vosa, Ai Vakadei ni Noqu Tiko Vinaka; My language provides stability to my wellbeing. As I think of how language provides stability to an individual’s wellbeing I am drawn to the intersections of home, memory, identity and veilomani: "the act of loving one another".

Since the COVID-19 pandemic closed borders, I have not been able to return home and be with my family and this has impacted on my wellbeing. Fiji is home. Fiji is where I go to ground myself, recover and connect with language and place - it is my wellbeing. I miss Fiji. I miss the embrace of catching up with cousins in Nadi before the drive from Nadi to Suva. I miss stopping in Sigatoka for a break and then taking the Korotogo back road so I can see our old house and remember all our beautiful neighbours and friends. Throughout the drive I am surprised by all the changes along the way and yet I am in love with what remains unchanged. My heart would race as we approach Veisari, and I would remember swimming at Bamboo, and I knew we are so close to home. I miss the feeling of anticipation as we would reach Lami Town and then go up Nasevou Street - my eyes would fill with tears as my mother would hold me and I would miss my beloved father even more.

The time spent in Fiji would be a celebration of language and wellbeing and especially veilomani, the spaces would be filled with family and friends; with meaningful talanoa between my mother and sisters and all the vakaji from my brother.

I am so grateful for the Fiji family and friends we have in Aotearoa and how they convey veilomani through language and sharing spaces where all our wellbeing is nurtured.

I want to pray for all of Fiji as they move through this ongoing crisis and Loloma levu to all our Fijian families in Aotearoa. I wish you all a blessed Fiji Language Week. I hope you all celebrate the value of language and how it provides stability to your wellbeing.

Vinaka vaka levu sara.

In a corner of the new Tāmaki Herenga Waka exhibition is a case and interactive with stories and objects relating to the TSMV Matua.

One of the stories is told by Melanie Rands (pictured) about her father, Keva Low, who arrived in Auckland onboard the Matua on April 21st 1946.

In this blog, Dr Andrea Low, Associate Curator, Contemporary World recounts Keva's journey.

Read blog