Dear Editor, Re: Aug 7th 2024 article, pg 3, Te Maeva Nui prize awards night.

“Everyone is a winner” is as fake as a statement could be. Cook Islands dance teams practice long and hard and often spend fortunes on their costumes only to be told on prizegiving night, “well, you didn’t really win, because everyone won”.

This concept, which the Te Maeva Nui committee is promoting is strangely at odds with reality. Many of us who watch Te Maeva Nui have never liked this recently introduced concept. It is both a lie and unnatural and goes against the grain of human nature.

Bring back the days when there was one team which stood out from the rest. It is our natural human desire to want to see an overall winner and therefore find out which is the best dance team in the Cook Islands for that given year. Competition is good; it makes people want to improve their game. 

Just as we can have a winning team during a sport event, or a single winning party during the general elections, why can’t we have one overall winning team during Te Maeva Nui? Should we start grading these events the same way Te Maeva Nui does so we’re left in confusion as to who the real winner of a sport is, or wonder who shall form the new government?

It’s natural to want to praise the winner, or to brag if you are a winner, so what gives MOCD (Ministry of Cultural Development) the right to curb our natural human desire to want to win, or see others win?

Here’s the reason why: the Te Maeva Nui committee is afraid of a bit of criticism in case there’s a backlash about the decision made by the judges they’ve selected. Grow a ‘pair’ people! Not everyone is going to be happy with the end result, so what? That’s life.

What’s not helpful is the tip-toeing around the public and the dance teams and making people work hard every year for prizes that aren’t really worth it. MOCD like any government institution, will always be in the frontline, so get used to the occasional stone that will be thrown your way. Competition is what prepares people for life in the real world.

Remember the days when a group got up at the end of the prize awards ceremony and celebrated by holding up their large trophy, while they danced and were cheered on? In those days the overall winner’s prize was usually sponsored by Air New Zealand. These days it’s a boring, fake awards ceremony with mediocre prizes, which is why there are always empty seats on the night.

It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee Te Maeva Nui organising committee. Te Maeva Nui needs spicing up. Humans compete for everything in this life: we compete for an education, we compete for a mate, and we compete for jobs. That’s life! Some will win, and some will lose. That’s life!

Bring back some real competition and maybe your prizegiving will not be so dull and put people off attending.

PS – Don’t say it’s not in Cook Islands nature to “compete”. Remember coconut tree climbing races, pua throwing, teka throwing, vaka ama racing, and rore?

Te Mareka Kore Nui

(Name and address supplied)