NiuZila: Land of full fat milk and welfare money

I have to confess that I haven’t gone to the PolyFest in the last few years.  I think it’s probably old age, but I’ve begun to dislike going to big festivals where it’s a hassle to find a car park, where you’re jostling for a space to sit amongst the masses, where the prices of (fatty) food and (sugary) drink are over the top, so there’s an added hassle of making lunch at home, getting the kids ready, making sure they’re well clothed for the weather, taking a mat to sit on, an umbrella for shade etc.  The list goes on.

But this year I made the effort to go, to support my younger cousins who were performing for various schools.  Luckily for me, the schools were all scheduled one after another in the morning, so I was able to leave before the hot afternoon sun beat down and before it became too crowded that you had to wait in line for everything (for the toilets, for food, to enter, to exit, walking to the toilets, walking to get food, walking to the entrance, walking to the exit etc).

But I think the biggest reason why I’ve grown to dislike going to events such as PolyFest are all the lil moepipi (literal translation: bed-wetter) FFT’s that also go.

The ASB Polyfest, or it’s proper name: the Auckland Secondary Schools Maori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, has been running for 33 years, and is the largest festial of it’s kind in the world.  This year there were over 90,000 spectators, 9000 students performing from over 60 schools (including a Samoan group from Ueligitone / Wellington, and a Niuean school from Niue).

The 2009 Theme was “Many Cultures, One World” - “Nga tikanga-a-iwi o te ao whanui” - “E tele aganu’u ae tasi lava le lalolagi” -” ‘Oku tau taha pe neongo ‘oku tau kau ki he ngaahi matakali kehekehe” - “ Kehekehe e tau aga Faka-Motu, ka e taha e lalolagi”  - “E mànganui te àkono’anga, ‘okota’i rai ao”.

However the Samoan stage must’ve missed the memo because the theme there was about ACC (state owned Accident Compensation Corporation - everyone in Niu Sila / New Zealand is covered by ACC).  Typical Samoans always wanting to be different.

And so PolyFest has grown from it’s humble beginnings in Aukilani Saute / South Auckland 33 years ago between four high schools, into this internationally famous event.  Somehow I think the FFT’s were around back in the 70’s just as they are around today, probably just in a different form.

For those of you who don’t know what FFT stands for, it isn’t a youth gang or a dance crew.  In fact it’s a term my younger cousins told me about not long ago, to which I couldn’t stop laughing about, and now use it all the time.  FFT stands for “Fia Fai To’alua”!  In a nice clean way this roughly means ‘out to look for a boyfriend/girlfriend’ or wanting to hook up.

And PolyFest is full of FFT’s!

Sure there’s the cultural performances, but there’s also the roaming mobs of youth who probably never sit down for five minutes to watch a performance, but walk around checking out the opposite sex.  My aunty and uncle met me at at the Samoan stage on Saturday morning and I asked them where their boys were.  “Gone walking around.”  And sure enough the only times they came to sit down with us at the Samoan stage was to get food or money off their parents.  FFT’s!

And it’s easy to see who is an FFT or not, by the way they dress.  They’ve usually got their best clothes on, their blings, and the latest hairdo (guys and girls).  They (try to) dress to impress.

Yet come Sunday, I’ll see them at church in their Sunday whites getting whacked over the head by aunty Peka for being tautalaitiiti and talking during the sermon.

PolyFest is a great display of our cultural heritage.  It’s too bad that of the 90,000 visitors, a huge chunk of them are FFT’s who have other things on their mind rather than the performances. 

My suggestion for future events, perhaps we need more “aunty Peka’s” at these festivals to whack these moepipi’s into place.