E pu, e pu ka Tangi. E Ka’ara! E pa’u!

E pate!

Turou oro’mai

Ko au teia e tama no te Moana nui o kiva, no Avaiki,

Te Tu’oro atu nei

Aere mai, Oro mai’

Oro mai ki teia paepae tapu

I konei tatou, tamataora ei

Ai…eeeekoko!

Cook Islands warrior Robert Paiti performed this pe’e at the opening of the Gold Coast Bleach Festival in Australia last week.

The Cook Islands Orana Dance Group also performed at the opening of the Bleach Festival in Gold Coast, Queensland through “Heart Beats”. Heart Beats is a combination of the Baala Baajo, Kizuna Taiko and the Orana dance groups.

Kevin Dando, a former Cook Islands TV presenter whose mother is from Aitutaki, has been heavily involved with the multicultural community in Gold Coast.

Dando, who is a multicultural community development officer, said that this month in Queensland is multicultural month, where the whole State gets to celebrate their diversity – people from different places and with different faces come together to share their magic and uniqueness.

Cook Islands Orana Dance Group in Gold Coast, Australia. SUPPLIED / 23080711 / 23080712

He said that the 10-day festival from August 3 to 13 began on Thursday of the first week of August. It is an event for all ages and is all about arts and cultural displays.

Dando said that at the opening of the festival at 6am, there was an indigenous welcome and the start of the day, which they looked forward to, called “first light”, where the Cook Islands’ “Heartbeats” performance came in.

He said that Heartbeats came about as a vision. They had been talking and thinking about having different drums from around the world come together through a group and share their stories and journeys through those beats.

“So we have three different cultural groups, representing three different regions in the world,” Dando said.

“The Pasifika represented by the Cook Islands, Orana Dance Group, a local dance group in the Gold Coast.”

Kizuna Taiko represents the Japanese community in the Asian region and the African part of the world is represented by Ghana.

Dando said the Heartbeats gives him a connection to his culture.

He said that for the Cook Islands community, this group is made up of young people who are eager to learn.

“I believe this drumming exercise and performance has really strengthened that side, they are more well-known for dancing at different events.”

Dando said that while a smaller group performed at the opening, there were also workshops held and this week, on August 13, is the finale.

The opening was a teaser, he added, but the finale will be the spotlight of all three cultures where the ura, imene and pe’e will be performed.

The turou, or welcome, will be an acknowledgement of the late political science professor Dr Jon Tikivanotau Jonassen, who recently passed away.

Dando said that he and his wife had received a copy of his last book, which talks about chants in Maori and English. One of the chants/pe’e will be used.

Last year’s Bleach Festival featured the song composed by late Dr Jonassen, “Mou Piri”, performed by Opera Queensland.