The annual Te Maeva Nui is Cook Islands’ biggest and greatest cultural performing arts festival that showcases the rich cultural heritage and traditions of its people in commemoration of the country’s self-governance in 1965.

This highly anticipated event is set to start next week, from Tuesday, July 30 to Monday, August 5, and communities on Rarotonga are abuzz with excitement as they prepare to showcase their unique cultural performances.

In the leadup to the festival, the participating groups, Atiu, Mangaia, Oire Nikao, Puaikura, Pukapuka, Takitumu, Te Fuinga O Niva, and Tupapa Maraerenga have been working tirelessly to perfect their routines and ensure that their performances are nothing short of spectacular.

From the kapa rima (action song), imene pupu (choir), imene tuki (traditional hymn), pe’e (chant), ura pa’u (drum dance), ute (traditional folk song), to intricate costume making and captivating storytelling, the Maeva Nui groups have been dedicating countless hours to rehearsals and fine-tuning their performances.

Cook Islands News interviewed the leaders of several performing arts groups this week to get an update on their preparations for the upcoming cultural festival.

Tupapa Maraerenga

Members – almost 60. Dancers – 16 boys, 16 girls.

Composer Steven Hiro and choreographer Tupa Tupa are leading the charge for the 2024 Te Maeva Nui Tupapa Maraerenga Cultural Dance Group with the support of Tatryanna Utanga as well as the dancers and its community.

Composer Steven Hiro (left) and choreographer Tupa Tupa for the Tupapa Maraerenga Cultural Dance Troupe for Te Maeva Nui 2024. MELINA ETCHES/24072621

Hiro and Tupa are “proud and grateful” to the parents of their young dancers for allowing them to participate in this event.

The team has engaged in dance rehearsals for three weeks now, under the cover of the Tupapa Maraerenga Sports Dome “Rangi Marumaru”.

“We started with such a small number and now we are near 60, so this is a great achievement for us,” says Hiro.

“We have a lot of new youth this year and the most challenging when we began was getting them to commit to the practices.”

Tupa adds they are so proud of the commitment and achievement of their young ones.

“They have come such a long way from when we first started,” says Tupa.

“Our main aim this year is to build up the knowledge of culture in our young people, to encourage them and help prepare them for our cultural arts. To get them to enjoy our culture and have a taste of being proud and celebrating our culture with passion.”

For Hiro, Te Maeva Nui is about bringing their community together, reconnecting and celebrating heritage through joyful dance and song.

“My culture makes me feel connected to my ancestors and all these talents, these gifts that we have is through the knowledge that has been passed down to us,” says Hiro.

“We want to inspire our youth, and we are rebuilding our group as we all know next year is the 60^th celebrations which will be huge.

“Also, in the future, it will be a proud moment for us to see our youth continue and one day lead this group and we will be the Papas sitting down watching and supporting them.”

Tupa says the most special feature of Te Maeva Nui is “identity” as well as the sharing of cultural knowledge.

“I like to share what I know and what I have learned. I feel special when I’m involved in Tupapa because I live here and I’m proud of my community.

“Te Maeva Nui is an amazing celebration and our community comes together during this time, united, working together to drive our culture and arts out there so proudly.”

Pastor Kapao Kapao composed the imene pupu led by his daughter Nina Sione, Papa Ngata Urirau compiled the imene tuki, and the costumes are created by the main designer, Mareta Angene Teira, with help from the community.

Hiro and Tupa would like to acknowledge the support of the community, the parents, the Pa Metua, and a special thanks to their Minister George “Maggie” Angene for his continuous support and encouragement, the sponsors and leaders.

“The support from our community gives us the drive and boost to continue, and this brings us together with our youth,” adds Tupa.

Pukapuka

Members – 58. Dancers – 16 boys, 12 girls.

Anjima Ruarau, the performing arts leader for Wale Pukapuka, is absolutely amazed that they have 16 boys dancing compared to none last year.

Anjima and Junior Ruarau with other members of the Pukapuka 2024 Te Maeva Nui team. MELINA ETCHES/24072624

“This year our boys are joining in and lifting the number of our dancers when last year we had no boys – it was just girl power,” says Ruarau.

Anjima Ruarau has been part of the Pukapuka Te Maeva Nui group since 2020 supporting her husband, Junior Ruarau, who is Pukapukan.

“Now I feel more confident in myself in this community. Before I wasn’t really aware of their lifestyle and customs which are totally different from where I’m from,” she shares.

“Being around my husband and the Pukapuka community actually builds confidence for me, I’m learning their culture as well as mine.”

Ruarau says the biggest challenge this year was finding costume makers.

She is ever so grateful to Shemaiah Boaza and Jacqueline Purea for responding to her plea for help in creating costumes.

“I only asked them last week to do a sample costume for us that we would finish off. But then they did all of our ura pa’u costumes and I’m so relieved.”

Ruarau believes this is the first time Pukapuka has the ura pa’u costumes completed and ready to be worn over a week before the show.

“Normally when we’re walking to the Auditorium backstage, we’re still glueing material as we go,” she says with a laugh.

“So this year I’m not as stressed, everything is more relaxed and I’m so thankful to these ladies.”

Boaza says they started on the sample costume last week and completed the whole set of ura pa’u costumes on Thursday.

She has been involved in the Pukapuka community for almost 14 years, but she was absent for the last four years.

“I only came back because Anjima asked me to help out,” says Boaza.

Purea has been heavily involved in the creation of costumes for three years.

“What I enjoy the most is seeing the finished product, when you see it and think ‘oh wow’…” she explains.

Purea and Boaza are happy to have been such a big help for Ruarau.

“She always helps us every time we need something so we wanted to return that to her, giving back to her,” says Purea.

Ruarau is grateful for the funds from Tauranga Vananga Ministry of Cultural Development that were distributed to the groups to assist with their resources and preparations.

She says they will use their share towards uniforms for the imene tuki and ute items.

“Uniforms are quite expensive these days and so are the tailors, so we thought we would do that so everyone would just need to contribute a little bit,” says Ruarau.

“This year has been a blessing. I’m grateful to the people I have allocated their things to do and they are doing their jobs so it’s been really good.

“Look out for us next week.”

Te Fuinga O Niva

Members – almost 60. Dancers – 14 boys, 18 girls.

This year the 18 female dancers have outnumbered the 14 males.

Maiti Samson, Te Fuinga O Niva’s Te Maeva Nui leader, says it has been a struggle to round up more male dancers.

Keen Te Fuinga O Niva dancers are committed to the dance rehearsals for the 2024 Te Maeva Nui. MELINA ETCHES/24072623

He managed to rope in a few more boys at the last minute to increase their numbers.

Samson has been involved with Te Maeva Nui and the team for the past few years.

What is it about Te Maeva Nui that inspires him to keep going back to lead Te Fuinga O Niva every year?

The Manihiki native explains: “For me, number one it’s the culture – that’s what brings us together to celebrate our government and having that opportunity for us to represent our islands, our Vaka.”

“For us, that’s the most special part about it, we get to come back together because throughout the year people are doing their own thing but during Te Maeva Nui, we get to represent our islands.

“Everyone gets back together – it’s a time for everyone to bond, reconnect, get to know each other and just work together…”

Like several other groups, Te Fuinga O Niva also experienced a slow start to get their members together.

Samson says this year the young ones really wanted to participate but not so much the older crowd, however, he remains optimistic.

“It’s been a struggle to get our older members to join especially with the singing, but slowly we are getting there.”

Another challenge has been the costumes.

“We all know costumes now cost a small fortune so we were blessed to have my brother (Tautape Samson) and families volunteer to help from New Zealand,” says Samson.

“We had to do a bit of fundraising here too to pay for our costumes.

“For us, at the end of the day, we want our dancers who are working hard to look good on stage.”

The main costume designer is Tautape Samson for both the ura pa’u and kapa rima items and he also assists with the choreography and composing items. Toka Toka is also involved in the compositions and choreography, and master drummer Junior Ioapa is back on the pate.