Maui-TāVā-He-Akó Professor Tēvita O Kaʻili
Pā‘utu-‘O-Vava‘u-Lahi, Adriana Lear
Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu Professor ‘Ōkusitino Māhina
“Art is a central thread of culture. Thus, some cultures worship the creators of the arts. In Moana Nui (Polynesia), originators of an art form are often elevated into deities. Ancestors were deified due to their great achievements in the arts. Today, they are still revered within the pantheon of Moana Nui societies. In Tonga, ʻotua are deified ancestors.”
“In Tonga, specifically (and in Moana Oceania, generally), it is thought and felt that we, epistemologically/metaphorically yet ontologically/historically, travel forward into the past and backward into the future, where both the illusive already-taken-place past and elusive yet-to-take-place future are constantly negotiated in the ever-shifting present.” Read more
Adriana Lear, A Study Of Traditional Tongan Music Using The Tā-Vā (Time-Space) Theory Of Art, BCA (Hons) thesis, Creative Arts – Music, University of Wollongong, 2018.
Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1adiL-dqRJ7SfK_dbT4B_RyY2c7NwG5Hh/view?usp=sharing
Tā-Vā (Time-Space) Theory of Reality, Pacific Studies, special issue, Vol. 40, 2017 co-edited by Tevita O. Ka‘ili, ‘Ōkusitino Māhina (Hūfanga) & Ping-Ann Addo.
Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IkPoxxe8PidPJna6CLc9hZQqJJbD51In
‘Pulotu, Hawaiki, and Lapita’ by Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu, originally published in Crafting Aotearoa: A Cultural History of Making in New Zealand and the Wider Moana Oceania (2019), edited by Karl Chitham, Kolokesa U. Māhina-Tuai, and Damian Skinner and published by Te Papa Press, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Click here to read.