From 'Atenisi to America

Here's Tagata Pasifika's report on the exhibition that No'o Fakataha, an Auckland-based collective of Tongan artists (read my last post for some details of the work of two of the group's members) staged recently at the 'Atenisi Institute in Nuku'alofa. Towards the end of the clip you get a magnificent view of the bald back of my head for a second or two.

Tagata Pasifika shows some of the performance 'Atenisi's dancers put on for the opening of the No'o Fakataha show, but the boys who graced our makeshift stage have since headed for the greener pastures of America, where they're performing at film festivals, universities, high schools, and kava clubs (that's right, kava has somehow avoided being victimised by America's idiotic war on drugs - in fact, the Yanks like kava so much they've put some of the drug's paraphernalia on their currency).

You can follow the 'Atenisi performers' triumphal progress here. This photo was taken before the 'Atenisians performed at the Utah Documentary Film Festival, where Paul Janman's Tongan Ark was shown.

[Posted by Scott Hamilton]