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Te Vaka has received rave reviews for their live
show and their five albums. Read album reviews for the ;'Olatia Tutuki','Nukukehe','Ki Mua' and 'Te Vaka' CDs, and DVDs as well as the interviews and
features below to find out what the critics think of Te
Vaka.The CDs can be ordered by clicking here via our secure online order form or by printing and faxing.
READ
REVIEWS OF TE VAKA LIVE
Bay of Plenty Times November 6, 2003
Fiery display
of Island charm
TE VAKA
 THE best fireworks display in town last
night was Te Vaka’s Arts Festival concert. The
opening log drum fanfare saw five drummers beat out
explosive Polynesian Rhythms with breathtaking
synchronisation. As the exotic Island dancing and full
band were added to the mix it became clear this was going
to be a roller coaster ride.
Te Vaka (The Waka) is a collective of eleven musicians
from the Tokelau, Cook Island, Samoan, Maori and European
communities brought together under the inspired
guardianship of Opetaia Foa’i. Numerous world tours,
successful WOMAD performances and three acclaimed CDs
have given the band a huge reputation in the burgeoning
international arena of World Music.
Opetaia’s songs, sung mainly in Tokelauan, were
drenched in warmth and emotion ranging from poignant
12-string guitar folksongs to the wild fun filled Pate
Pate
As the call "Siva! Siva!" went up the audience
literally erupted into mass dancing - the stage awash
with colour and ecstatic dancers gyrating throughout the
theatre.
Te Vaka’s music always embraces indigenous Oceanic
roots. The highly talented musicians sensibly look to
their rich Polynesian heritage for inspiration.
The seamless cohesion of the band, drawn from such
diverse cultures, is a political statement as well as an
artistic one. All paddling in the same direction Te Vaka
sails straight and true.
The sustained standing ovation at the conclusion of the
show (and a haka by one section of the audience) spoke
volumes about the power this band has to talk across
cultures. A festival highlight.
- Liam Ryan
...........................................................................................................
MAUI
SCENE May 16 2002
Making the SCENE by Rick Chatenever
Transported by Canoe
Their name, Te Vaka, translates as “the canoe”
in the language of Tokelau. It refers to the South
Pacific voyaging origins of the New Zealand musical group
that performed at the Maui Arts & Cultural Centre
last Friday.But after experiencing the way the
high-energy musicians and dancers rocked Castle Theater
to about a 10 on the rapture scale, the full-house Maui
audience could have come up with our own definition of
what Te Vaka means: Adrenaline-powered, bare-midriffed,
percussion-pulsed, infectiously happy, beautiful people
bringing ancient traditions into the modern world...with
a good beat you could dance to.
Or something along those lines. Call it Te Vaka
‘n’roll. The eight men and three women of the
group had finally arrived, almost nine months after they
had been slated to open The Center’s performance
season last Sept,14. They had to be rescheduled after the
events of Sept.11 changed the world - and made it
impossible to book flights - in the dark days following
the terrorist attack on New York.The show was worth the
wait, as anyone in the audience dancing could have told
you. That’s right, dancing - not on the dance floor,
but in front of our seats, more than
1,000 of us. The music left no alternative. You had to
dance. Even the ushers, keepers of order in the exalted
theater, were dancing.
The group’s sound is grounded in giant log drums,
and assorted other instruments in the percussion family.
At times the drumming, chanting and dancing are
reminiscent of a Tahitian hula show, complete with
dancers in grass skirts and coconut bras, hips
ablur.
 But Te Vaka adds guitars, keyboard,
world beat and funk rhythms, soaring harmonies, along
with the indigenous wisdom of the Maori, Samoan and
Tokelauan cultures. It is primal and fun-loving, catching
everyone up in its energy. I think the audience may have
had something to do with what happened that
evening. Not the usual Castle Theater crowd, the place
was packed with Hawaiian hula dancers, moonlighting from
their own shows along with Samoans, Tongans and
representatives of other South Seas cultures.
Rather than a “performance” it felt like a
visit from distant cousins who had traveled along way
over the sea. What they did was familiar - but different,
Sometimes the dancing looked like hula, but then there
would be hand movements that seemed more
at home in an Indonesian temple.Between the performers
and audience, there was a whole lot of ethnic melding
going on. The members of Te Vaka spoke in clipped kiwi
accents. The woman dancer in the coconut bra was prone to
clap her hands in sweeping arcs over her large feathered
headdress, stadium-rock-show-style.
Acknowledging that this was the group’s first visit
to Hawaii and that they liked “our little country
here” the group’s leader Opetaia Tavita
Foa’i was greeted, not with applause, but with wild
yells of welcome.
When he introduced his cousin, the cute, sexy
singer-dancer-percussionist Sulata Foa’i-Amiatu, a
plaintive voice called out from the audience.
“What’s your phone number?”
There are political and ecological undercurrents in
leader Foa’i’s song lyrics. They resonate with
the wisdom of the earth, known to indigenous peoples
around the globe who have fallen victim to colonizers
intent on “owning’ the land.But Te Vaka’s
greater gift is for setting pure joy to music.Responding
to the love fest ovation at the end of the show,
Foa’i left the crowd with the admonition to
“stay Pacific”. He might have just as easily
said, “stay human”.
Either way, Te Vaka had offered an unforgettable lesson
in how it’s done.
Rick Chatenever
WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK July 2000
Since 1995, New Zealand-based Te Vaka has developed into
a music and dance ensemble that now finds itself in an
enviable position: they are one of the few bands on the
world stage that perform what is called “Original,
Contemporary, Pacific Music”. Their impressive live
show features an 11-piece group of Polynesian musicians
and dancers, and through constant touring, they have
gained a strong following throughout Europe, making their
mark in the U.S as well. Their music is uplifting and
alive, solid sincere, harmonically and rhythmically rich,
and surprisingly accessible.
Te Vaka is the brainchild of songwriter, guitarist and
vocalist Opetaia Foa’i. One day, Foa’i found
himself disenchanted with singing cover tunes, and
instead decided to explore the music and expression of
his own culture by writing original material, gaining
subject matter through interviews of older people from
the South Pacific islands of Tokelau, Tuvalu, and
Samoa.Singing in the Tokelauan language, Foa’i
expresses the joys of island life, and also addresses the
tough times his people have experienced. His music
incorporates elements of traditional South Pacific island
music, which includes rich, sunny vocal harmonies and
tribal log drum percussion. His reverence for such
songwriters as Jimi Hendrix and Joan Armatrading also
come through, creating an accessible and rarely heard
musical combination.
A few years ago, composer/producer Quincy Jones was known
to say that the next great musical movement to impress
the world will come from the Pacific. If Quincy’s
prediction is correct, then Te Vaka have an even busier
touring schedule ahead of them ! #
Interviewer: Katerina Pavlakis
Text: Ari Langer
Te Vaka - The World's A Stage,
by Jennifer Scott, New Zealand Musician
magazine, February 1999
For Auckland-based world
music sensation, Te Vaka, the choice of name has been
prophetic. Te Vaka means 'the canoe' and in the case of
the 10 - member group it has fast become a case of 'have
canoe, will travel'.
Te Vaka was one of the main New Zealand acts at
February's WOMAD festival in Auckland. The group is no
stranger to WOMAD, having performed at six, including
those in England, Spain and Australia, since 1997.
The group's founder and songwriter, Opetaia Foa'i and his
wife, Te Vaka's manager, Julie Foa'i, say the
international response has been overwhelming- and at
times almost unbelievable. Walking into the Foa'i's home
in Laingholm, West Auckland, the walls are lined with
photographs from Te Vaka's 1998 European tour.
Many of the photos look like they should be on the
celebrity pages of a magazine - Julie and Opetaia
pictured with, among others, WOMAD  founder
Peter Gabriel, Sir Bob Geldof, Neil Finn, Dave Dobbyn and
Ringo Starr. It is almost as though the photographs serve
as a pinch on the arm for them - a visual 'see, it really
did happen!'
Te Vaka's journey to the world's stages began in 1995,
stemming from Opetaia's frustration with playing covers
and a developing fascination with stories about his
Tokelauan and Tuvaluan ancestors. "I always felt
uncomfortable about playing other people's music, making
money playing in pubs, just doing covers. After a while
it really gets to you," he says. "My father
started talking to me about his experiences in the
Islands and I found myself getting really interested. I
started asking questions and got more and more intrigued
and from then on I started writing little stories. That's
how it all started. As the cliche goes, it's like doing a
full circle. You find yourself back where you started
from."
The result is Te Vaka's self -described 'original,
contemporary Pacific music'. The songs, written by
Opetaia, are sung in Tokelauan by Opetaia and Sulata
Foa'i ( Opetaia's cousin, who released her own acclaimed
solo album, 'Kia koe', on Deep grooves in 1996). The
songs fuse modern melodies with traditional instruments
with an emphasis on the log drums.
It is a powerful combination, the strong rhythms laced
with a tangible sense of respect for the culture and the
emotion of the songwriter. "It takes the essence of
the traditional and puts it in a new form," says
Julie. "It goes beyond what happened when the
missionaries came in and all that kind of stuff, it's far
more rootsy than that."
Opetaia elaborates: "It's Polynesian-driven, this
project and when I say that, I mean it's inspired by the
old, original, pioneers of the South Pacific. I find them
absolutely, awesomely inspiring. They had a very
childlike attitude to life, just hopping into a canoe and
saying ' I'm going to travel a thousand miles'. It was
nothing to them, it was just a daily walk. I thought that
was absolutely amazing and that's what inspired all these
songs."
If Opetaia is the captain of Te Vaka, Julie is most
certainly the navigator, steering the group to ever
increasing success. Julie says the first time she heard
her husband's new style of songs she knew they were
something special. She immediately set about getting the
songs heard by the world. Opetaia says Julie's ambitious
game plan caused some raised eyebrows at early band
meetings. "
In 1995 she really did put this piece of paper in front
of us and it said 'Target: take this music to the world'.
You should have seen the looks from some of the band
members who were thinking 'Is this lady sane?'!"
Julie says her strategy to get Te Vaka on the world's
stages (and they have been on some of the best) was
simple. "If people know about this music, they'll
want to hear it and that has been proven. When people
hear it, they love it."
Te Vaka has since completed two world tours and watching
a video of last year's, I witnessed the amazing reaction
Te Vaka induces from crowds in country's as diverse a
Spain and Estonia, and from people of all ages. There is
a tremendous sense of joy and fun about the performances
that has proved irresistible to many.
The group will embark on a third world tour in May and
can be sure that the people they wowed in past years will
be back for more. "One of the most amazing things
for me was when we played in Sweden and this really big
guy came up to me after the show and said 'I
cried'," says Opetaia. Julie adds: "Then his
little wife came up and said in her pidgin English,
'That's rock music the way it should be!"
Te Vaka's performance includes four dancers who are one
of the most popular features of the show.
"Traditional music is our main influence and if you
watch traditional music, it goes hand in hand with
dancing- they're inseparable," says Opetaia.
As well as the dances, the costumes worn are a source of
great fascination for overseas audiences. "I was
promoting the show by sending out videos and somebody
wrote in saying 'the music sounds good and I've never
seen young ladies in coconut wonderbras before!'"
laughs Julie.
On a serious note, the traditional costumes resulted in
one of the group's toughest and most awful experiences.
They were playing a private show for an English film
producer when one of the candles lighting the room set
fire to Alana Foa'i's grass skirt. Alana suffered third
degree burns on her legs and bass player Vasa Foa'i and
dancer Edwin Pita were also badly burnt trying to help
her. Julie says she believes this experience has made the
group stronger with Alana's courage an inspiration to
them all. Although she was told she wouldn't be able to
dance again for some time and was left with scarring,
after two weeks Alana was up and practising. "She
couldn't walk but she could dance".
For all the fun and colour of the performances,
songwriting is something Opetaia does not take lightly,
and there is a depth and passion underlying Te Vaka's
work. One of the main issues Opetaia says he is
addressing on the groups second album is that of global
warming. " A lot of the smaller islands like Tokelau
where a lot of my inspiration comes from, will
disappear."
While this may not effect people in New Zealand now, he
says it definitely will when the people from the
diminishing islands are forced to move here. The songs
also celebrate the peacefulness and beauty of island
living as well as paying homage to the past. Two songs,
'Vaka gaoi' (slave ship) and 'Tagi Sina' (Sina is crying)
tell of the devastation brought to Tokelau when the
Peruvian slave ships came in the 1800s, tearing families
apart and leaving Tokelau with a population of only
around 80 people.
Other songs such as 'Pate mo tou vae' (log drums for your
feet) and 'Ki te la' (shine the sun), celebrate the joys
of living in a sunny paradise. Opetaia explains to
audiences what the songs are about when he performs and
the liner notes to the CD feature translations in six
different European languages.
Opetaia plays his songs with an alternate open tuning. He
retuned his guitar one day, forcing him to make up new
chords to fit with the new tuning! While there are many
forms of open tuning, the one he developed is rare.
"When I had Dave Dobbyn and Neil Finn one night I
showed them the tuning and they couldn't believe it.
They'd never seen it before"
Te Vaka's second album is being recorded at the Foa'i's
home studio with Opetaia co-producing with Malcolm Smith
from Auckland's Revolver Studios.
Although the group was asked to record at Peter Gabriel's
famous Real World studio, they decided to come home to
record. "We've had to turn him down twice now,"
laments Julie. "The first time, we got a call an
hour before we were due to leave England. We had these
homesick people, and Real World studio rang saying Peter
wants to use the drummers on his latest album but it was
just too late so we had to turn him down. "Then
after our concert in Spain the head of WOMAD came up and
offered us the opportunity to record a whole live album
at Real World. They select two or three artists and have
all the top producers in from America, all the top gear
and they have this session. We were looking forward to it
but we couldn't compromise our album. Our policy all
along has been not to compromise quality and I think
that's what has made us competitive overseas money or no
money, we've gone to the ends of the earth to make it
sound up there with other stuff and it's paid off."
Part of doing it properly has seen the band equip their
studio with a brand new Mackie Digital 8-Bus mixing desk
and Mackie HR824 Studio monitors. However, although the
production side of things is high tech, the fundamentals
remain basic, with a strong emphasis on traditional log
drums and what Opetaia describes as the other traditional
instrument- the aluminum biscuit tin!
While signed to, and distributed internationally by
England-based ARC Records, the groups work is distributed
by BMG in New Zealand and overseas the company has
expressed interest in signing the group directly to the
label.
An indication of the high esteem in which the company
holds the group is that they were invited to perform on
BMG's stage at POPKOMM in Cologne, Germany, the world's
biggest industry tradeshow. Indeed the list of
prestigious gigs Te Vaka has played and where they have
played them is dazzling.
In England they have played in the famous Ronnie Scott's
venue, the Royal Festival Hall and the Hackney Empire
Theatre and were selected  to perform at England's prestigious
Charity Pop concert. The concert was held in Surrey with
Te Vaka sharing the stage with artists such as Sir Bob
Geldolf, Gary Brooker (Procol Harum), Roger Taylor
(Queen), Peter Frampton and Ringo Starr. It is not just
Europe and far away countries that have been wooed by Te
Vaka.
Julie says in the Islands, Te Vaka is practically a
household name. "Apparently there's quite a fan club
over there. When families have big reunions and the kids
perform items, a lot of them will be Te Vaka songs!"
But it will be sometime before Te Vaka go back to the
Islands, as demand overseas will keep them busy for some
time. "It has been a process of working up from the
bottom, from the unknown and this year's going to be
really good for us because we're now a sought after item
overseas," says Julie. "We're booked up to 2000
already."
Auckland,
Oct 5 1998 (AFP) - Interview of Opetaia and Julie Foa'i
with Jennifer Little
 The Tokelau
islands form one of the tiniest nations on the planet,
with a total land mass of four square miles (10.4 square
kilometres), but at the moment they are at the centre of
the musical world. Polynesian musicians calling
themselves Te Vaka have leapt from humble homegrown
beginnings to become stars of international music
festivals in just one year.
Tokelau, with 1,700 residents, has no harbour nor airport
and its first telephone exchange is just a year old, but
Te Vaka has outstripped its palm-fringed origins to take
on exacting European audiences.
They combine traditional Polynesian rhythms, sounds,
stories, dances and ambience with a touch of modern
technology. "Most people on the other side of the
world think instantly of Hawaiian guitars and hula
skirts," said the group's manager Julie Foa'i of the
music.
To the spell of Te Vaka's sweet harmonies, lusty log drum
rhythms and feel-good melodies - all sung in Tokelauan
and written by the group's lead singer-songwriter,
guitarist and percussionist Opetaia Foa'i - Europeans
readily succumbed in 1997.
The enchantment grew during the 10-member band's second
four-month, 15-country tour of music festivals from
England to Estonia, from the celebrated Ronnie Scott's in
London to the World Expo in Portugal. Samoan-born Opetaia
Foa'i, who grew up in a Tokelauan community, thanks his
European wife Julie's marketing savvy and enthusiasm for
the voyage from obscurity to stardom.
When someone suggested they send the track to Peter
Gabriel's Real World studios in England, Opetaia thought
they were crazy. But they sent it and faxes came back
immediately saying they wanted more.
The pair assembled musicians - all family members
including their four children, and two Europeans - and
produced their first album of original contemporary
Polynesian music titled "Te Vaka" which was
released world-wide by ARC Music Productions
International in more than 60 countries last May. It
topped music charts from California to Switzerland, and
received rave reviews globally.
Opetaia describes a poignant moment when one day his wife
wrote on a piece of paper: "Target -- we take this
music to the world." The band members looked at each
other disbelievingly, shrugged, and said
"sure". But Julie Foa'i was determined. After
all, Te Vaka, meaning canoe, "is all about taking
the Pacific to the world," she said.
Their initial tour was hugely successful, and the return
tour this year brought even more  acclaim
and prestigious invitations, including the chance to
record at Gabriel's studios which, because of time
constraints, they could not accept.
Though the songs "make people feel good" says
Julie, they also impart the sorrow of Tokelau's past that
her husband gathers by talking to elderly and his own
family from the islands. One song tells of how Tokelauans
were taken by South American slave traders between 1850
and 1872, reducing the population to 80 people, mainly
old men and women and young children. The song "Taga
Sina" expresses the sadness and desperation felt by
those left behind.
Back in their hometown of Auckland, where most of the
5,000 Tokelauans not based in the islands live, Te Vaka
are preparing to record their next album, and creating a
new stage show which does include a hula. "We take
essences from different islands - the common denominator
is that it's all Polynesian," says Opetaia.
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