Assignment 2 - Field Research Project

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Assignment 2 – Field Research Project Te Vara Nui Village Cultural Performance - Cook Islands Crystal Estridge National University MUS 327 World Music Professor Amy Hacker February 25, 2024

Assignment 2 - Te Vara Nui Village Cultural Performance - Cook Islands 1 Introduction In Te Vara Nui village on Rarotonga, one of the New Zealand Cook Islands, there is an award-winning tourist attraction for an over-the-water dinner and night show performed by the Māori people. On this beautiful island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they have several different attractions and tour groups to show their history and culture. One of the tours takes you through the Polynesian medicines, fishing, and craft techniques and learn further in their beliefs and legends. Once the tour is over tourists that purchased the extravaganza packet can experience a dinner and a show. I will be only reviewing this second part which is one of their social spectacular fire dance performances over the water telling a story of folklore legend passed down from their ancestors called “The Legend of Tongairi”. The Legend of Tongaiti Bringing to life a traditional folk genre cultural dance, “The Legend of Tongaiti” is an adventure story that represents pride, love, and celebration of a voyaging warrior and his family searching for new land to call home (2019, Fretwell). According to Te Vara Nui website, the storyline is about a voyager that heard about a beautiful floating island and decides to take his family and tribe to this new land, so they built a Vaka and set sail. They spotted what they thought was a coconut in the sea and when they got closer it grew larger the closer they got and then realized this was the floating land they sought out for. This island was called Tumu-Te- Varovaro, Rarotonga. The native islanders were aggressive and would not allow them to reach the shores, for many days they floated around the island growing weary and hungry. In desperation, Tongairi told his daughter to dance for the chief of the islanders to mesmerize and

Assignment 2 - Te Vara Nui Village Cultural Performance - Cook Islands 2 soften his heart with her beauty. The chief fell in love with her and welcomed Tongairi’s tribe and family to the island where they celebrated with a feast and dance. The combined tribe became known as the “Tangata Enua”. (Te Vara Nui website) Music & Performance This amazing show brings in different forms of musical instruments and mesmerizing rhythm with the musicians adding their unique hollering expressions into the music from time to time in the performance. Unfortunately, I was unable to see the exact instruments used but found a picture on their website showing the different types (See left image below), you can hear different forms of Membranophones, aerophone, and chordophones throughout. From what I can

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