Music and dance

Music and dance are embedded in Pacific cultural ways of being and are a way for tamaiti and āiga to connect with their ancestors and cultural narratives. Music and dance are significant parts of Pacific cultures. They enable the transmission of language and are a way to represent, express, and celebrate cultural values and beliefs.

As tamaiti become familiar with the words of songs and dance movements they develop competence in understanding and interpreting language to express themselves in meaningful contexts through actions.

The beat, rhythm, pattern, and sequence of Pacific music and dance are strongly connected to early mathematical learning.

“Te Whāriki rests on the theory that all children will succeed in education when the foundations to their learning are based on an understanding and a respect for their cultural roots”. Tilly Reedy (2013), (cited in Te Whāriki p.15)

When children hear music and are involved in dance experiences from their culture, it contributes to their sense of belonging and strengthens their cultural identity. Experiencing music and dance from their own and other cultures affirms and uplifts the mana of tamaiti and their fanau.

How do we apply it in practice?

We invite you to view the music and dance video and consider how you are supporting Pacific learners to know their identities, languages, and cultures through music and dance.

In this video, you will see and hear tamaiti and kaiako involved in meaningful music and dance experiences from different Pacific cultures.

Kaiako share the ways they embed music, songs, and waiata in everyday experiences and routines with tamaiti as part of their local curriculum design. They promote the use of cultural artefacts (ula, 'ei, skirts, lavalava, drums) to enhance tamaiti involvement in music and dance experiences in authentic ways. Kaiako of Pacific heritages also share music and dance from their cultures with tamaiti.

Transcript

Kaiako and tamariki singing and dancing
“Ta ta la la. Chu! Ta ta la la. Ta ta la la. Chu! Ta ta la la.
Ta ta la la. Ta ta la la. Chu!”
Rebecca, Kew Pacific Preschool, voiceover:
I believe it's really important to celebrate Pasifika arts, as a way of celebrating the children's language, …
Rebecca, Kew Pacific Preschool, speaking to camera:
… culture and identity. It's also a way of passing on stories from their ancestors…
Kaiako presenting tamariki with lei
Rebecca, Kew Pacific Preschool, voiceover:
… in really meaningful, natural ways. So making that learning authentic to them, to their families.
Kaiako and tamariki around fire pit
Marcel, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, voiceover:
It shows a sense of belonging to the individual – tamariki – of where they’ve come from.
Marcel, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, speaking to camera:
For example, the Samoan culture, they use the fire dancing.
Tamariki performing fire dancing; watching fire
Marcel, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, voiceover:
It's quite a technique to do. Some cultures use the fire for their cooking, for warmth.
Marcel, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, speaking to camera:
It brings everyone together when we were singing a waiata.
Tamariki and kaiako singing waiata around firepit
Marcel, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, voiceover:
Our tamariki gets to experience that through resources that we use.
Tamariki and kaiako singing waiata around firepit
“E ono ono mai ihe ta vae mau. E ono ono mai ihe ta vae mau. Ke vevelo ai toku paopao e.”
Tamariki with lei; Child and teacher completing a puzzle
Justine, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, voiceover:
Arts – it's everything. In the way we portray ourselves, in the way we dress, in the way we talk to the tamaiti. Everything is an art – our music, our stories, everything.
Justine, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, speaking to camera:
The children, they just hear a song and the next minute, they’ve got their hips shaking.
Tamaiti dancing with dance skirt and lei
Justine, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, voiceover:
Their legs clapping together as well. Everything is art to them.
George, Berhampore – Te Punanga O Te Reo Kuki Airani, voiceover:
A big inspiration is definitely our culture.
George, Berhampore – Te Punanga O Te Reo Kuki Airani, speaking to camera:
But then we like to see how our children react to certain things as well as, like, they might like to be moving outside. We might have some modern music playing outside and they like to move.
Kaiako and tamaiti dancing outside to music
George, Berhampore – Te Punanga O Te Reo Kuki Airani, voiceover:
So we try to bring in some cultural music or the sound of the drums to encourage them to move in the Cook Island way.
Kaiako extinguishing fire pit
Marcel, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, voiceover:
After the fire, we use the embers and that to…
Marcel, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, speaking to camera:
…extend our art, to show the tamariki…
Tamariki using charcoal to draw pictures
Marcel, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, voiceover:
…that art is not for crayons, painting and that, you can actually go out and think outside of the square and using other resources that nature has given us.
Tamariki using charcoal to draw pictures
Kaiako, Nukutukulea Aoga Niue, voiceover:
For us Niuean, we learn through watching. We learn through touching.
Kaiako, Nukutukulea Aoga Niue, speaking to camera:
And children would pick up with what we’re doing and how we’re talking to them.
Tamariki playing, singing, and using shells
Kaiako, Nukutukulea Aoga Niue, voiceover:
They will learn from those things. They will learn the language, they will learn socialising with each other. You know, there’s lots of learning happening with whatever resources that we have available for them at the time.
Tamariki and kaiako singing
Justine, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, voiceover:
We celebrate Pacific Island…
Justine, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, speaking to camera:
… arts through sensory play, through music, through dance.
Tamariki and kaiako dancing
Justine, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, voiceover:
Through everything. Through our daily routines. We always sing with the tamaiti. We… they love their pese. We look out the windows, we sing, “Si manu laititi”. We look at the cats, we go, “Va’ai le pusi la le i o”.
Justine, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, speaking to camera:
It's just everything.
Tamariki and kaiako weaving outside
Justine, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, voiceover:
It's normality.
Tamariki and kaiako weaving outside
Kaiako, Nukutukulea Aoga Niue, voiceover:
It's who we are in terms of culture, symbols like…
Kaiako, Nukutukulea Aoga Niue, speaking to camera:
…teaching the children how to weave.
Tamariki being taught how to weave dance skirts; dancing and singing
Kaiako, Nukutukulea Aoga Niue, voiceover:
They're very interested in touching stuff. And the language came out of that, and making connection to the dancing skirt, to the dancing, actually. And in the Niuean culture, now that I know songs connected with actions.
Kaiako, Nukutukulea Aoga Niue, speaking to camera:
The words comes with the actions. So it's more or less, the whole package is there in terms of language and culture.
Tamariki being taught a dance and singing
Kaiako, Nukutukulea Aoga Niue, voiceover:
It’s something… it’s unique in terms of our identity. Probably we are the only one who create dancing skirt like that.
Tamariki being taught a dance and singing
“Monu, monu, monu! Tagaloa Niue!”
Outside shot of classroom
Sarah, Casa Nova Kindergarten, voiceover:
We had huge Pacific Island language week celebrations last year. And these families brought their strengths and skills and came and shared these with us.
Sarah, Casa Nova Kindergarten, speaking to camera:
Oamaru's schools are actually really lucky to have Pasifika cultural groups. And we do our very best to get them to come here and show us what they do and what they've learnt at school.
Tamariki playing instruments and making music
Sarah, Casa Nova Kindergarten, voiceover:
A lot of them are family members of our kids, so it's great to connect that as well within the community. And after they leave, the children are dancing, singing and making connections for days afterwards.
Rebecca, Kew Pacific Preschool, speaking to camera:
We incorporate Pasifika arts into our local curriculum through storytelling, printmaking, weaving.
Tamariki singing and dancing
Rebecca, Kew Pacific Preschool, voiceover:
A lot of the arts that we celebrate here is through dance and through singing. We also like to celebrate the Pasifika language weeks…
Rebecca, Kew Pacific Preschool, speaking to camera:
… here at the centre. And that's a really meaningful way to start engaging families…
Shot of chickens; teacher singing
Rebecca, Kew Pacific Preschool, voiceover:
…and getting them to contribute ideas around how we use the arts within our local curriculum.
Tamariki singing
“A E Fa Ha I K L Ma Nga O Pa Sa Ta U Va”
Sarah, Casa Nova Kindergarten, voiceover:
We held a hui, which was really well supported by our families. And we came together to talk about
Sarah, Casa Nova Kindergarten, speaking to camera:
…learning and what learning looks like for their child. And then coming back to kindergarten, we had to have a bit of a plan about what we were going to do with this learning. So we've worked really closely with families. They’ve bought in their skills and strengths, and we've shared ours.
Some examples of that are two of our Tuvaluan families…
Tamariki dancing
Sarah, Casa Nova Kindergarten, voiceover:
…shared some music with us, dance and singing, and got their children to show us what they do at home and at church, and in the wider community, to celebrate their culture.
Nic, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, speaking to camera:
Here we have teachers from Tokelau, the Cook Islands, Tonga, and Samoa. So they are able to share with us how the arts need to be done, how they should look.
Pasifika artefacts and clothing
Nic, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, voiceover:
What the significance is for different cultures. The ones we don't know, our families are really good at helping us. We have a family from Kiribati. We don't know much about it. We've learnt what we can, but we ask and they come and help us.
Nic, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, speaking to camera:
They'll do wee videos for us to share with the children so that we know we're on the right track.
Tamariki and kaiako dancing and singing
Rosie, Kew Pacific Preschool, voiceover:
A lot of my stories and the dances that I bring to the centre, as part of learning my culture, is telling a story about where I am from and what we do back home.
Rosie, Kew Pacific Preschool, speaking to camera:
And like the dances that we do this morning – it's about a coconut.
Tamariki and kaiako dancing and singing
Rosie, Kew Pacific Preschool, voiceover:
You hold on to the coconut and you take it down from a coconut tree, and you husk it, and then open it, and eat it with the fish. But you have to go and fish as well. So throughout that song, it tells us a story about how we daily, you know, daily diet…
Rosie, Kew Pacific Preschool, speaking to camera:
… back in the Islands. And it's been passed on from generation to generation,
Tamariki and kaiako dancing and singing
Rosie, Kew Pacific Preschool, voiceover:
… as a song and a story like what we do today.
Sarah, Casa Nova Kindergarten, speaking to camera:
We're not experts in any way, shape or form. So we're using families, the community, and the Internet to support us with our provocations and grow the arts.
Our intentions with our arts provocations are that they're available for children. We do use the internet if families haven't helped us with things,
Tamariki learning dance actions from video
Sarah, Casa Nova Kindergarten, voiceover:
… to explore things, so we can grow the learning and make connections to culture. And then we put provocations out and children get to choose how they use them to grow their own arts.
We use a lot of YouTube or recording videos of when people have visited, and that's how we revisit music in the arts.
Nic, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, speaking to camera:
The art is put into their profile books. It's shared on Facebook.
Tamariki and kaiako sitting around fire pit
Nic, Punavai o le Atamai Preschool, voiceover:
It goes on Seesaw. They can take it home. The focus on arts is invaluable and the children know that when they're ready, we're ready for them too.
Tamariki and kaiako sitting around fire pit singing
“Ura ta ki runga. Ura ura ta ūa.”

Ideas for your service

A significant feature relating to the transferring of cultural knowledge through music and dance is the concept of tei laititi-tei matua, similar to the Cook Island Māori concept of tuakana-teina, where older tamaiti take on the role of teaching younger tamaiti. It is critical that kaiako honour the personal cultural knowledge and experiences that Pacific tamaiti bring with them to the early childhood service and provide opportunities for tamaiti to use this knowledge to strengthen their sense of their identities, languages, cultures, belonging, and wellbeing.

Music and dance experiences are shared and members of the wider Pacific communities embrace the opportunities to join the early learning services to share their cultural knowledge and support others to learn more about Pacific music and dance.

Think of ways that you can connect with Pacific music and dance through the games and physical learning experiences that tamaiti engage in. Find games or activities that involve chants, songs, or opportunities for tamaiti to be playful with words and sounds from their own languages.
When Pacific tamaiti are involved in their play experiences, ensure there are appropriate resources available that enable them to express themselves through music and dance. This might be a YouTube video, a video recording, drums and coconut shells, dancing skirts, or ula.
Equip your centre and kaiako with as many culturally relevant music and dance resources for tamaiti to identify and connect with. In Pacific cultures, music and dance is for everyone, so include younger tamaiti in music and dance experiences.
Learn some songs or dances from different Pacific cultures that you can incorporate into your daily routines. Enjoy music and singing while you are completing other activities, like gardening or digging in the sandpit.
Think about the ways you can invite children and their fanau to share music and dances from their home, church, or wider community. Engage with your Pacific parents and community to understand what music and dances are culturally important to them, and what they would like to see, feel and hear in the service. Watch the video to see kaiako talk about how they approach their Pacific families about what resources they may like to share.
Use Pacific songs as part of your storytelling practice. Lots of Pacific songs tell stories, or describe everyday rituals and practices. Singing allows for the repetition of the story or message, and even very young tamaiti are able to follow along with simple words and actions.
Find out about the music and dance that is significant for tamaiti and fanau in your community or for your kaiako, and consider the space you create for this to be shared and celebrated. Allow children to be the experts in their own cultural music and dance and teach kaiako as well as their friends.
Look for ways to incorporate other arts with music and dance. This might be through weaving, dying, painting, or printing to create something to dance in, like a dancing skirt or ‘ei, or something to dance with, like a drum.
When listening to Pacific music or doing siva or sāsā ura with children, talk about the patterns and sequences of the beats, rhythm, and actions. Listen to Pacific drum beats and encourage tamaiti to repeat the patterns they hear. Experiment with different instruments, including body percussion, buckets, pairs of sticks and tables or the floor. Talk about loud and quiet, hard and soft, fast and slow.
When supporting pepe (babies), engage with parents to understand what is familiar to them, what they see hear and feel in their worlds. These might be familiar words, songs, lullabies, or pese (songs), movements, or a Pacific custom like massage. Teach toddlers songs with actions, and give them resources, such as drums, coconut shells, or other musical instruments to use.
Pacific Beatz on the Plunket, Whānau Āwhina website has examples of Pacific songs for young learners.

Reflective questions

In your service:

What regular opportunities do children have to experience music, songs, dance, and other forms of creative expression from their own and other cultures?
How do you support Pacific tamaiti to share their own songs and dances?
How can you engage in conversations with tamaiti to revisit their music and dance experiences?
What opportunities do you provide for tamaiti and their āiga to share intergenerational music, songs, and dances with you?
How do you connect with the wider Pacific communities and events to find out about their music, songs, and dance and see cultural values in action?
How could you use what you have learnt here to help drive your local curriculum planning?
How could you discover the aspirations parents and families have for their tamaiti in the arts?
How can you learn about the cultural messages within Pacific music, songs, and dance?
What did you see in the music and dance video that you think you could implement in your service now?
How are you deliberately planning opportunities to integrate and support mathematical learning by drawing attention to beat, rhythm, pattern, and sequence through music and dance?

These reflective questions and provocations remind us of the holistic ways that the four key Pacific art areas are interconnected and woven together.

Knowing your tamaiti and their families and community well, and allowing them to explore their languages, cultures, and identities through music and dance, gives them the tools to explore their connections to the past as well as where they are right now.

Each Pacific heritage has its own unique way of looking at the world - explaining that world through music and dance is common to all Pacific cultures. The passing on of songs, rhythms, and movement over time has helped to keep languages, cultures, and identities alive.

A’a i ka hula, waiho i ka maka’u i ka hale

Dare to dance, leave shame at home

Hawai’ian proverb