Loud Dancing

Vilsoni Hereniko. A man who I have read and examined academically throughout my Pacific studies journey, has shown me his creative side.  His play Fine Dancing was an intense, confusing and thrilling experience, where at times I was unsure whether to laugh or cry. The Play was originally produced and performed as a wedding present to the guests at his own wedding. A little odd I thought after watching the two hour play depicting a woman’s struggle with sexual and physical abuse from her husband.  Yet the play captured so much more than just domestic violence; the effects of Christianity on Pacific culture, issues around self-identity and perceptions, cultural and societal norms within the Pacific context, and issues around gender binaries. The play was all encompassing in terms of pan Pacific arts and culture, as it included various dances from Rotuma to Tahiti and Hawai’i along with the use of pacific terms such as Mahu which is similar to the Samoan term fa’afafine meaning a third gender person. The inclusion of all these aspects made the performance accessible to a much wider audience than if it were just a portrayal of domestic violence. The main point or concluding message of the play, that I retained, was not to let anyone belittle you and to have a good sense of self-identity.

Hereniko pointed out at the end of the play one of the foundational concrete posts of the Oceania Centre’s structure, which had painted on it a quote out of Epeli Hau’ofa’s well-known article “Our Sea of Islands”. The quote was put there as a reminder to the students and staff who used the Oceania Centre never to let anyone belittle you.  I found this a little surreal. I had only read Hau’ofa’s  “Our Sea of Islands” in a classroom setting detached from the reality of everyday life in the Pacific yet now I was seeing Hau’ofa’s very words permanently marked on a very public structure in Fiji right in front of my eyes, in a very NON-classroom setting! I felt that Fine Dancing had to an extent embodied Hau’ofa’s very words and put it into a context that almost anyone could access.

Hau’ofa says that if the notion of Islanders and their physical surroundings are not countered with more constructive views then this could inflict lasting damage on people’s images of themselves (1994: 150). Here Hau’ofa is referring to self-image in an international context, inferring that the current notions of Islanders are belittling ones.  I found this notion of a belittling self-image, using a more personal approach, was filtered throughout Hereniko’s play. Through domestic violence Hereniko has ingeniously managed to explore the very prevalent issue of self-image within the Pacific region.