L-R: MIT Senior Pasifika Manager, Aiono Manu Fa’aea, Young New Zealander of the Year Eteroa Lafaele, Research Fellow Rita Seumanutafa-Palala, Associate Professor Lefaoalii Dion Enari.
Unitec’s Ngā Wai a Te Tūī Māori and Indigenous Research Centre recently hosted a presentation by visiting Research Fellow, Rita Seumanutafa-Palala, from the University of Melbourne.
Her ethnomusicological study looks at Pese o le Fa’aulufalega (Songs for a church opening event), a traditional genre that was carried over to Aotearoa by migrant Samoans from 1960 to 2014.
Seumanutafa-Palala’s presentation attracted kaimahi from Unitec and MIT, academics from other institutions; as well as church and Pacific community leaders, who actively took part in the post-presentation discussions.
Samoan tech expert and Young New Zealander of the Year, Eteroa Lafaele was also present along with those who have a personal and family connection to the source material used in the research.
Pese o le Fa’aulufalega were created, taught and performed by fatupese (elite composers) and Samoan community groups, which enabled a thriving and vibrant musical tradition in the celebration of newly built falesa (church buildings).
“We were blessed to see her important research. Not only did she show the deep wisdom within Samoan music, but she was also able to challenge and provide alternatives to the study of Samoan music as we know it,” says Associate Professor Dion Enari, who was instrumental in bringing Seumanutafa-Palala to Unitec.
“Her presence at Unitec not only profiled Pacific research but also built international connections between Unitec and the University of Melbourne. She is an academic TikTok influencer and has platformed our awesome Unitec to the world.”
Seumanutafa-Palala presented key findings from her doctoral study, which explore discussion themes such as the continuation of fa’asamoa (Samoan culture) in Pese o le Fa’aulufalega, as well as an analysis of key aspects of pese Samoa (Samoan song) that privileges the voices and expertise of practitioners, bringing a nuanced and insightful discourse of pese (song) to the field.