Wa’a Arrival Ceremony FestPAC Hawaii

On a cold dreary Auckland afternoon, a mere 4600 odd miles away from Kualoa Regional Park, Hawaii, I watched a Youtube live stream of the Wa’a Ceremony that kicked off the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture in Hawaii on Wednesday 5 June, 2024 (Hawaii time). 

I was 3 days away from catching a flight to Hawaii to attend this highly anticipated Festival, and gutted that I was not there to take part in the powhiri to welcome our waka ashore.

Nevertheless, with my packing cubes and small suitcase almost packed, I was absolutely thrilled to watch the Co-Head leads of the Aotearoa delegation: Kura Moeahu and Bonita Bigham via a live Youtube stream on my laptop, both being interviewed by Lacy Deniz from Hawaii News Now.

Only a few hours earlier I had seen multiple Instagram stories and Tik Tok clips of our delegation on the shoreline teaching waiata and hand actions with the very lucky crowd that had managed to attend the private welcoming ceremony. I had read (in a few social media posts) that many delegation members and media had experienced problems trying to gain access to Kualoa Regional Park.

As I watched and listened to Kura and Bonita, I couldn't help but feel a sense of enormous pride knowing that they were representing the arrival of our people on this global platform. My ngakau (heart) was beaming with Māori pride. This easily was the most outstanding livestream clip on Youtube that I'd ever watched in real time!  

“It’s an amazing experience for those of us not proficient language experts in our own Reo.“
~ Bonita Bigham | Co-Head of Aotearoa Delegation

Our Aotearoa delegate leaders were both asked what it was like to hear all the other languages from across Moananuiākea and across the Pacific and to share their Mãori culture and reo (language) on the FestPAC platform with everyone, Bonita had this to say:

“It’s an amazing experience, especially for those of us not proficient language experts in our own Reo, unlike Kura.

Just to hear the elevation of everyone’s languages, everyone’s dialects, everyone’s expressions of love and solidarity is absolutely amazing.

I’m very grateful to be here.” 

Image Credit: Zelda Rafai

Seated next to Bonita, Kura Moeahu shared these sentiments about his experience of the Wa’a Arrival Ceremony.

“From the outset of our arrival, this morning has just been magical. You feel the wairua of the people and our wairua is the spirituality and connection between different nations. Each one of them brings their own different sets of knowledge, their traditional knowledge and the one thing that has united us is Te Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa.

One of the themes we had when we left was ‘He Herengakura, He Herenga Tangata Ki Hawaiki.’

Uniting our treasures, our taonga and our people to Hawaii.

So everyone in our delegation is familiar with that and we’re here to express our culture under the mana of the Kanaka Maoli.” 

Watch the Wa’a Arrival Ceremony for FestPAC 2024 HERE.