Portal:Tuvalu/Selected article/12

A Tuvaluan dancer at Auckland's Pasifika Festival

The traditional music of Tuvalu consists of dances, including fatele, fakanau and fakaseasea.

The modern fatele involves the women on their feet, dancing in lines; with the men facing the dancers, sitting on the floor beating the time with their hands on the mats or on wooden boxes, such as a tea chest.

While Tuvaluan songs convey a dramatic story, the concentrated song structure often omits key events in the story. An example of a pre-missionary song is Te foe, te foe kia atua, which is a fakanau from Niutao recorded by Gerd Koch. (More...)

Te foe, te foe kia atua. Te foe, te foe kia tagata. Pili te foe, manu te foe! E, taku foe! E, taku foe!

The paddle, the paddle of the gods. The paddle, the paddle of men. Take the paddle, seize the paddle! Oh my paddle! Oh my paddle!