Flower Power Listening Post 318. Imagine an archipelago, nine islands sharing a common culture but each welcoming visitors with a sign indicating its singular stories and features: One isle is focused on dance, another on flowers, others on music creation, parenthood,...
Outbound, Homebound Listening Post 247. The singer-musicians of Kaumaakonga are outliers because their ancestors traveled far. Their two small islands—Mungava and Mungiki, from which they derive Avaiki, the name of their Polynesian culture and language—occupy a corner...
Nuance in Paradise Listening Post 144. A Google search of literature featuring Tahiti turns up novels by 46 authors, only one of whom is Tahitian: Most of what the world knows about the fabled island is filtered through foreign eyes. The singer-songwriter Vaiteani...
Pacific Family Matters Listening Post 36. As a teenager, Opetaia Foa’i knew music was his calling—to the chagrin of his family, for whom singing was integral to life but hardly a profession. Born in Samoa—father from Tokelau, mother from Tuvalu—and raised in New...
