Pacific scholar's 50-year journey with ASB Polyfest

Sāmoan language pioneer Muli’agatele Dr Vavaō Fetui, a longtime stalwart of ASB Polyfest, recalls its early beginnings 50 years ago. 

The University of Auckland doctoral graduate made history two years ago by becoming the first in Aotearoa New Zealand, and the second in the world, to write his thesis in Sāmoan: Toe Laumeanuti O Le Faaaloalo I Agatausili a Samoa I Atualuluga (Notions of Respect and Politeness in a Transnational Community) at the age of 78. 

Muli’agatele (Fagali'i of Vaimauga, Saoluafata of Anoama'a, Tafuna of American Sāmoa and Fagasa of Tutuila) recalls the festival launching in the heart of South Auckland in 1976 at Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate in Ōtara.

The programme included just four high schools led by Pacific parents and teachers with a strong desire to maintain Pacific culture. This year, just under 300 groups from 77 schools will showcase traditional music, dance, costumes, and cultural speeches in what is now the largest Polynesian secondary schools cultural festival in the world. 

He says it was a privilege to be involved at the very beginning with teachers and parents, helping with what would develop into the ASB Polyfest. 

“It began as the Māori and Pacific Schools Festival, moving from school to school, with different hosts each year. It was a transferable concept, from parents who knew the importance of sustaining culture, of bringing this into schools.” 

For the past decade, Muli’agatele has continued to play a key role at the festival as a judge on the Sāmoan Stage. Dance has always been an important part of his life; he was a performer back home as a student attending Sāmoa College. 

“I was dancing for the celebration of Independence Day. I can say I was dancing before I was born. I didn’t have any choice,” he says fondly.

In the mid-1980s, he was teaching English as a Second Language (ESOL) to new arrivals at Mt Roskill Grammar, later becoming the principal writer of the new curriculum reform in 1993, which also introduced the teaching of the Sāmoan language and culture. 

The popularity of the festival grew over the decades and a shift in thinking saw attitudes change about the importance of heritage languages. He says heritage speakers, linguists, and educators began working together to ensure Pacific languages would not be lost. 

“It’s fascinating to recall the long journey as a native speaker, first language speaker, and what is important here in Aotearoa. There was a paradigm shift, a different way of thinking, and so it was important about what we brought with us,” he says of the Pacific people that made Aotearoa their home. 

“For us to come to a new environment, given time and space, as native speakers, using our languages, you need to communicate in the main domains: home, church, schools, and social gathering spaces.” 

The Legacy of Melegalenu’u To’alepaiali’i Ah Sam 

The late Melegalenu’u To’alepaiali’i Ah Sam was the acting principal of Māngere College and also the lead coordinator for the Polyfest Sāmoan Stage for more than 30 years. Well-known by the thousands of youth who have performed at the festival over the decades, she passed away last year in April. 

A dear friend of the University, she was a frequent visitor to the Fale Pasifika and Waipapa Marae for community engagements in her roles as a principal and through her long-standing relationship with the University, via its sponsorship of the Sāmoan Stage.

The 75-year-old also taught and mentored a number of University students and staff. Ah Sam is also the mother of a professional teaching fellow in mathematics at the University, Josephina Ah Sam-Tamatoa.

Muli’agatele said his dear colleague had great mana and her absence would be keenly felt at this year’s festival.

“She had the mana to speak on behalf of judges, to teachers and performers. Some will always be disappointed. We value what is on their minds, their own judgments, but judges have criteria, and we take a pragmatic approach.”

He says the long-running festival has been invaluable in helping to sustain Pacific culture, observing the knowledge and expertise being passed on from one generation to the next.

“I note with interest, former girls from AGS (Auckland Girls Grammar) who performed in the 90s have come back to help celebrate the 50 years. That is what legacy is all about, passing on knowledge and understanding.”