Q’s Loft is filled to capacity for the Auckland premiere of choreographer/director Tupe Lualua’s new work Fatu na Toto – Planted seeds, presented by Le Moana Productions. Most of the very appreciative audience is Samoan, proud to celebrate a Samoan language production and support friends and family from Porirua who comprise the cast.  Audience members who have no Samoan language can nevertheless understand the key themes and issues and be moved by the way these issues are raised and resolved.

Appearing inTempo Dance Festival with the support of Pacific Dance New Zealand, the work draws on experiences of migration to New Zealand in the 1950s, along with those of New Zealand born generations, themes which have also been explored previously in theatrical works such as The Factory (Kila Kokonut Krew) and Gathering Clouds (Black Grace). Here they are grouped in four sections: Rites of passage, Change, Journey, and Truth.

We see the decision to leave Samoa for New Zealand, preparation for departure and the challenges faced on arrival, the shock of factory work, anger at the way the new migrants are treated by their employers and by New Zealanders in general. A constant thread is the counsel provided by their Matua (Falemua Tolua Lualua) about how best to cope with the period of transition – always remembering your culture and serving its purpose with love and respect.  We experience social gatherings, new relationships, the impact of alcohol, family violence, the loss of a husband to death, the craving of a teenage daughter to know what her parents have been through, to learn Samoan language and come to terms with her cultural heritage.

Each vignette combines some text with music and dance derived from traditional Samoan forms, and while the Matua’s oratory has ultimate cultural authority, women’s voices bring their personal experience into the arena of the theatre in ways which enrich their dialogical exchanges with his advice.  Three musicians (Taelega John Taufa, Sonny Miti and Atapana Melisea) provide accompaniment with guitar, log drum and vocals, and while recorded instrumental music provides a backdrop of sound,  a number of songs are purely a capella. There are traditional cultural songs,  a some hymns, some Elvis inspired ballads, and a heartfelt delivery of Que Sera Sera.

Sasa, siva, fa’a taupati and taualuga are staged in ways which honor the requirements for men and women to dance in their own separate spaces. Subtle contemporary variations are very cleverly woven into the movement vocabulary and interaction patterns of the choreography to indicate the continuing adjustment of traditional forms and values in the New Zealand social context, and the passing of time from the 1950s to the present.

Tupe Lualua is the Pacific Dance Artist in Residence this  this year, so it is likely that we will have opportunities to see more of her work before too long. There will be much interest in her next production.

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Fatu Na Toto, conceived and directed by Tupe Lualua, is delivered by a cast of 14 vibrant performers who declaim, dance, drum and sing the experiences of Tupe’s parents’ as migrants from Samoa to New Zealand. Just as the parents did, this work sails in a new direction, and enlarges the world.

The taupou, a much-esteemed female role in Samoan village life, is no doubt Tupe’s mother… and her grandmothers.  As the voice of old Samoa, Tolua Lualua, delivering oratory, is no doubt her father … and her grandfathers.

In fragments of dance he shows the strength of male presence, with his brief transition to the female’s graceful style of siva marking a high point of Samoan performance for important cultural occasions. The rolled fala is drummed by TJ Manase Fereti, a powerful, impeccable timekeeper throughout.

Male and female contrasts alternate through the experiences depicted in dance, each twinned with a song, and interspersed with narrative in Samoan. Such power and such grace. Sasa and fa’a taupati, siva and taualuga …these forces are complementary, not in opposition. The occasional aiuli, clumsy clown, only elevates them in the contrast.

The move to a new country entails much challenge, well known to the many Polynesian communities now established here, and to migrants everywhere … secrets of domestic incidents, and the boredom of repetition at the factory bench. But the value of education for the next generation, often stated as the motivation for migration, is a reward for hardships endured.  Sacrifices and justification.

Tupe Lualua offers a measured take on these themes, accepting the way things are (the song Que sera, sera is beautifully rendered) and yet aching to capture and keep the best  of all that went before, at cultural and family level. She has triumphed by finding a way to harness the old dances of her heritage with the forces operating in the new land, and the newly choreographed sequences sit well within that context.

The dedication of the work to the memory of her mother is heartfelt.

The imagery of gardening in the title, with the notion of one generation composting another, rings true. Inside us the dead.

Credit to Whitireia Perfoming Arts, which has always encouraged the harnessing of  the new to the old. Bats Theatre is resourcefully camping out while their home across town is revamped. Wellington’s Fringe Festival is up and running.  Talofa lava.

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