Sunday, January 27, 2013

Identity through song in Fiji

from w
The Lauan people of Eastern Fiji have a distinctive style of singing, influenced by Tongan singing and dancing. One type is called polotu with about six voice parts and the religious song is accompanied by a triangle. The singing is very loud and male and female voice parts are distinctive. Today a group of Lauan men and women and children were at Altona Meadows/Laverton Uniting Church for a service and Peceli and I joined them (though Peceli is from babasiga land - Labasa) and we sang about ten songs in the polotu style. It was a lovely service and followed by afternoon tea and kava drinking of course. Here are some photos I took this afternoon.








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