From Matangi Tonga Magazine, Vol. 15, no. 4, January 2001.

The first serious documentary to focus on traditional Tongan dances was shown for the first time at the National Cultural Centre, Nuku‘alofa, on December 2.

‘Haka he Langi Kuo Tau’, ‘We Dance in the Ecstasy of Singing’, is a beautiful 70-minute documentary featuring the big dances that were performed in 1998 to celebrate the 80th birthday of HM King Taufa‘ahau Tupou IV.

The documentary was jointly produced by the Institute for Polynesian Studies, the Brigham Young University and the Polynesian Cultural Centre, Hawai‘i, and it was put together by the Executive Producer, Eric B. Shumway, who is President of BYU, Hawai‘i.

Eric is well known to Tongans  by the Matapule title, Faivaola,  given to him by the King because of his success in promoting the Tongan culture in his books and films.

The aptly named ‘Haka He Langi Kuo Tau’ is his second serious documentary relating to the Tongan culture, his first was ‘Kava Kuo Heka’, about the royal kava circle of  the King.  

Patriotic

The ‘Haka he Langi Kuo Tau’, according Eric is not a critical look at Tongan dancing but it is an effort to depict the love of the Tongan people of their country and the King. It is patriotic, he said,  “the Tongans—from all over Tonga and overseas—dance and sing of their praise and alliance with the Monarch. It is a civilisation”.

And so patriotic it was, that even the Australian High Commissioner, Mr Angus Macdonald, praised Eric for his effort and said at the showing, that if he was a Tongan he would be very proud of what he had seen in the documentary.