The Cook Islands - Art and culture

Introduction

INDIVIDUALITY between islands is the hallmark of the culture of the Cook

Islands and reflects their varied sources of ancient migration as well as the
vast distances between 15 tiny islands scattered over a section of the central
South Pacific Ocean as big as the Indian sub-continent.
However, there are some common threads. All the islands employed a chiefly
system based on traditional legends of migration and settlement. These stories
enshrined the power of the chiefs as inheritors of what might be termed an
"heroic" culture.
From time to time theories have been advanced that Polynesian culture
before European contact was similar to that of the heroic period of Greece, that
is, pre-dating Homer around 1200 BC. Some of these parallels include the
concept of 'mana', kinship, feasting and the giving of food, attitudes towards
women and the lack of individualism.
The Polynesian hero, or free man, acquired 'mana', loosely translated as
'power' and 'prestige' by the deeds he accomplished. He was measured by his
deeds achieved on a purely personal basis. His main attachment was to his own
kin or clan. The obligations inside this framework far outweighed any notion
of social conscience or nationalism. This was a close parallel to the archaic
Greeks, termed by Homer 'Achaians'. Neither the Achaian nor the archetypal
Polynesian free man or 'hero' had a word describing his immediate nuclear
family. Also, neither had a word for 'love' as modern western civilisation
understands it. Food and the giving of it features strongly in both cultures.
Western notions of the importance of the individual are completely alien to
Polynesians as indeed they would have been to the Achaians. Polynesians see
themselves as members of a race, a people, a party or some other general group
in much the same way as many primitive societies do.
Allegiance to chiefs was a fundamental of Polynesian culture. The chiefs'
titles and other authoritative positions were passed down primarily through the
senior male line. However, land rights were inherited via the mother's line.
Chiefs were responsible for war leadership, carrying out important discussions
with other groups or clans, land allocation, disputes settlement and intercession
with the gods.
 One of the most significant functions of a chief was to organise and pay for
feasts. A chief, or indeed, any man, was judged by his ability and willingness
to bestow gifts and to throw big parties. Much of the detail of these cultural
structures was lost when the missionaries began making inroads into the
native religion in 1823 and afterwards.

The Dance

TO THE despair of many educated Cook Islanders the expression "culture" in

the popular mind equates to traditional festivals, singing and dancing. There is
some justification for this since the art of dance is taken very seriously in the
Cooks. Each island has its own special dances and these
are practised assiduously from early childhood. There
are numerous competitions throughout the year on each
island – Events – and these are hotly contested. The
highly rhythmic drumming on the paté and the wild and
sensuous movements of both men and women virtually
guarantee that Cook Islands teams win all the major Pacific dance festivals.The
Hawaiian hula and the Tahitian tamuré are probably better known because
those islands have had wider publicity for the last 100 years but the Cook
Islands hura is far more sensual and fierce. Every major hotel prides itself on
the performance it puts on at least once a week on Island Night when guests,
selected by the dancers, are led onto the floor to show what they can do.
Music

IF THERE is one outstanding ability which appears to be shared by all Cook

Islanders it is music and song. Close harmony singing is highly developed in
church music and the power and emotional impact of chants and hymns at
weddings and funerals is well known to visitors who attend. The range and
talent of popular singing can be seen at the numerous festivals throughout the
year (see Events). Each island also has its own songs and the various island
groups compete fiercely. There are numerous Polynesian string bands who play
at restaurants, hotels and concerts and they use combinations of modern
electronics with traditional ukeleles fashioned from coconut shells.
The distinctive Cook Islands drumming is world famous but, unfortunately,
much misinformation is disseminated particularly in the USA and many north
Americans are under the false impression that the wooden drums of the Cook
Islands originate from Tahiti. In an attempt to rectify this we publish the
following from noted authority Dr Jon Jonassen of Brigham Young University,
Hawaii:-
The wooden drums which are falsely claimed as Tahitian in the USA along
with the distinct Aitutaki, Manihiki, Tongareva, Pukapuka, Mangaia, Nga-pu-
toru, and Rarotonga rhythms is a blatant plagiarisation of cultural images and
sounds too often being misappropriated by commercial institutions. Ironically,
the propagators are most often not even Tahitian. The Polynesian Cultural
Center (PCC) in Hawaii is one of the prime propagators of this tragic cultural
assassination. Keep in mind that the PCC has existed for 40 years and during
all that time the institution has by its actions, purposely kept representation of
some Polynesian cultures including that of the Cook Islands. Exclusion has
unfairly marginalised those cultures in the USA while rendering them even
more vulnerable for unscrupulous abuse. Tahitians coming to school in Hawaii
have often worked in the PCC where they "learn" their culture and then return
to work in their islands.
Several direct efforts by the Cook Islands Government and various individuals
for representation were sometimes encouraged by PCC management but when
pursued it was always turned down. During that same long period of exclusion
(an exclusion that continues even now) the absorption of Cook Islands drum
instruments, drum rhythms and songs into the Tahitian village has been
encouraged. Cook Islanders needing jobs while attending the nearby university
were usually shepherded into the Tahitian village or show and often pressured
to share their culture. This is a form of cultural plagiarisation which has been
comparatively slow in the beginning but seems to have picked up pace in the
last few years.
Sometimes such profit-motivated insensitive actions by companies regarding
Cook Islands drum instrumentsand rhythms have even involved straight piracy.
One of our drum rhythm recordings released in the 1960s in New Zealand
reappeared 10 years later re-released as drums of Bora Bora. The only
difference was the record album cover.
The very recent spreading of 'Tahitian drumming' competitions springing up in
many parts of the USA can actually be traced to origins at the Polynesian
Cultural Center. New Tahitian names for old Cook Islands rhythms are now
springing up and being presented as original or traditional Tahitian. This
shameless abuse of other Pacific cultures in this modern day is unfortunately
not limited to Cook Islands wooden drums. Even the Australian didgeridoo has
not been spared and it sometimes appears in so called Tahitian drumming
rhythms together with nose flute sounds reminiscent of the Andes bamboo pipe
music. Oh yes, even the didgeridoo, which first appeared in Tahitian music in
1993 (after the 1992 Festival of Pacific Arts popular performances by the
Australian aboriginees) now has a Tahitian name. Apparently, Coco's group, a
dance team that represented Tahiti at the Festival of Pacific Islands in 1992,
'rediscovered' this old 'Tahitian' instrument immediately upon returning to
Tahiti from the festival. Coco's dance group visited the Polynesian Cultural
Center in Hawaii the following year and spread word about the 'new' old
instrument. That has basically been the same shameful attitude and treatment
of the Cook Islands drum instruments, orchestration and rhythms.
The factual history of the wooden drums and skin drum sounds and rhythms
of the Cook Islands can never be changed although it seems that there are
those who refuse to acknowledge that important link or who want to try to
steal ownership.
Initial guide scripts at the popular Hawaiian Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC)
in 1978 acknowledged that the 'tohere is apparently not of Tahitian origin'.
That part of the script has now mysteriously disappeared and the guides will
now tell you that the wooden drums are a traditional Tahitian instrument: a
deception that chooses to ignore that there is strong evidence to show that the
guitar and accordian were widely used in Tahiti before the introduction of the
Cook Islands Maori wooden drums. The guitar and the accordian have not yet
been claimed as traditional Tahitian instruments and yet the wooden gong of
the Cook Islands has. While portraying itself as preserving culture, PCC has
actually been involved in an institutionally sponsored set of activities that has
too often tended to have negative ramification. The unfortunate part is that no-
one within that system seems to care;even though the PCC claims it has strong
moral foundations.
Meanwhile, tragically the beautiful original real skin drum sounds of Tahiti are
being replaced by the distinct wooden-skin mix sounds of the Cook Islands
Maori. So the Cook Islands's drumming identity is being stolen for the future
while that of Tahiti is being buried in the past.
Only a few years ago, the origin of the wooden drum instruments, rhythms and
orchestration was acknowledged publically in the Bastille Celebrations in
Tahiti. There was no shame in acknowledging that openly in Tahiti. I had
earlier been privy to informal discussions in the 1980s between former Cook
Islands Prime Minister Geoffrey Henry and French Polynesian President
Gaston Flosse on the subject of Cook Islands music and drumming rhythms
being used in Tahiti. A similar informal discussion also took place between
Cook Islands Prime Minister Sir Thomas Davis and President Gaston Flosse. I
was then the Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Cook Islands
and later the Secretary of the Ministry of Cultural Development.
At both times, President Flosse acknowledged the popularity of Cook Islands
drum beats and music in French Polynesia. He had no difficulties
acknowledging that the drum rhythms were from the Cook Islands. Indeed, he
even went so far as to request for the Cook Islands National Arts Theatre
(CINAT) performers to assist in the protocol welcoming of several voyaging
traditional canoes to Raiatea. He indicated that Tahiti had lost its traditional
protocol for such events. So the CINAT was sponsored to travel to Raiatea to
offer an appropriate traditional protocol. It was CINAT that were filmed but the
Hawaiian documentaries which I subsequently saw wrongly credited the item
and performers to be Tahitian.
I grew up as a Maori drummer and travelled with the Betela Youth club in
1965-66 to participate in the Bastille Celebrations dance competition being
held in Tahiti. Our group along with with a group from Aitutaki island (also in
the Cook Islands) were picked up by a French government airforce plane and
transported to Tahiti from the island of Aitutaki. That was my first experience
of the wonderful Tahitian drumming which is made up of a variety of skin
drums. There were some repetitious bamboo sounds but there was no wooden
gong sound. Our Rarotonga team and that from Aitutaki were the only drum
rhythms in the celebrations which included the unique mix of skin and wooden
drums you now hear in the USA as 'Tahitian'. Our sound reflected the
drumming of Manihiki and Tongareva with some Aitutaki rhythms but the
Aitutaki team was in its usual outstanding typical Aitutaki rhythmic form.
Every beat pattern was unique to Aitutaki with low pitch and double play of
the shark drum and the tokere. Even a return visit of our Betela dance team to
Tahiti in 1972, eight years later, still showed a dominance of the skin drum
sound among Tahitian performers.
All the other 40 performers in our Rarotonga team will tell you the same thing.
They will also tell of the problems with people hiding in the bushes trying to
record our rehearsals on audio tape. It would then seem, that the mislabeling of
Cook Islands Maori drums occurred in the late 1970s and the Polynesian
Cultural Center seems to have played a pivotal role.
In a land such as the USA where copyright, ownership and truth are bandied
around, with concern about others copying US ideas, sounds and images, it is
truly sad to see such open mistreatment and abuse of a long established Cook
Islands Maori cultural art form. Cook Islands drum dances and drum rhythms
are well known and have been for many years. Their exciting rhythms are only
now being discovered openly in the USA. That exciting rhythm has existed for
hundreds of years in Aitutaki, Manihiki, Pukapuka, Mangaia and Tongareva.
Do not call it Tahitian drumming. Acknowledgement is the least you can do.
Matakite, Dr Jon Tikivanotau Jonassen

Visual arts

IN RECENT years there has been an increase in activity by local painters and
artists have begun to develop original contemporary Polynesian
styles. Woodcarving is a common art form in the Cook Islands.
Sculpture in stone is much rarer although there are some
excellent carvings in basalt by Mike Taveoni. The proximity of
islands in the southern group helped produce a homogeneous
style of carving but which had special developments in each
island. Rarotonga is known for its fisherman's gods and staff-
gods, Atiu for its wooden seats, Mitiaro, Mauke and Atiu for
mace and slab gods and Mangaia for its ceremonial adzes. Most
of the original wood carvings were either spirited away by early European
collectors or were burned in large numbers by missionary zealots. Today,
carving is no longer the major art form with the same spiritual and cultural
emphasis given to it by the Maori in New Zealand. However, there are
continual efforts to interest young people in their heritage and some good work
is being turned out under the guidance of older carvers. Atiu, in particular, has
a strong tradition of crafts both in carving and local fibre arts such as tapa.
Mangaia is the source of many fine adzes carved in a distinctive, idiosyncratic
style with the so-called double-k design. Mangaia also produces food
pounders carved from the heavy calcite found in its extensive limestone caves.

Crafts

THE OUTER islands produce traditional weaving of mats, basketware and

hats. Particularly fine examples of rito hats are worn by women to church on
Sundays. They are made from the uncurled fibre of the coconut palm and are
of very high quality. The Polynesian equivalent of Panama hats, they are
highly valued and are keenly sought by Polynesian visitors from Tahiti. Often,
they are decorated with hatbands made of minuscule pupu shells which are
painted and stitched on by hand. Although pupu are found on other islands the
collection and use of them in decorative work has become a speciality of
Mangaia.

Tivaevae

A MAJOR art form in the Cook Islands is tivaevae. This is, in essence, the art
of making handmade patchwork quilts. Introduced by the wives of
missionaries in the 19th century, the craft grew into a communal activity and is
probably one of the main reasons for its popularity. The Fibre Arts Studio on
Atiu has tivaivai for sale as does the Arasena Gallery next to the Blue Note
Café on Rarotonga.

Literature

THE COOK islands have produced many writers. One of the earliest was
Stephen Savage, a New Zealander who arrived in Rarotonga in 1894. A public
servant, Savage compiled a dictionary late in the 19th century. The first
manuscript was destroyed by fire but he began work again and the Maori to
English dictionary was published long after his death. The task of completing
the full dictionary awaits some scholar.
 Samoa had Robert Louis Stevenson and Tahiti had Paul Gauguin. The Cook
Islands had Robert Dean Frisbie, a Californian writer who, in the late 1920s,
sought refuge from the hectic world of post-war America and made his home
on Pukapuka. Eventually, loneliness, alcohol and disease overcame Frisbie
but not before he had written sensitively of the islands in numerous magazine
articles and books. His grave is in the CICC churchyard in Avarua, Rarotonga.
His eldest daughter, Johnny, now living on Rarotonga, is also a writer and has
produced a biography of her family titled "The Frisbies of the South Seas".
Another fugitive from the metropolis of London was Ronald Syme, founder
of the pineapple canning enterprise on Mangaia and author of "Isles of the
Frigate Bird" and "The Lagoon is Lonely Now". In similar vein, an English
expatriate who lived on Mauke, Julian Dashwood, wrote "South Seas
Paradise" under the pseudonym, Julian Hillas.
Sir Tom Davis, an ex-Prime Minister and renowned ocean sailor, knows his
island history and has an exhaustive knowledge of ancient Polynesian
navigational techniques. His autobiography, "Island Boy", details his career. As
well as being president of the Cook Islands Oceangoing Vaka Association, he
has recently published an historical novel "Vaka" which is the story of a
Polynesian ocean voyage.