Performers at The Big Sing Finale Gala Concert 2023. Photo: Photo by Johnathan Christiansen
There's a telling statistic.
The most recent incarnation of the New Zealand Secondary Students' Choir had 17 singers from a Pasifika background, the New Zealand Youth Choir which toured the Northern Hemisphere earlier this year had three.
Why the drop in Pasifika membership from one age group to the next? It certainly isn't because of a lack of talent.
The influence of Pasifika singers and song on the New Zealand choral scene is there for all to see and hear, from The Big Sing to the hit movie, Tinā.
This weekend, Choirs Aotearoa is hosting the inaugural Choirs Aotearoa NZ Pasifika Wananga at Auckland University.
The hui is both recognition of the role Pasifika peoples are playing in New Zealand choral music, but also to address that drop in participation which occurs after many Pasifika students leave high school.
Enyah Talamaivao Photo: Tahlia Griffis
One of those speaking will be Samoan-Kiwi alto Enyah Talamaivao, who was one of the three Pasifika singers who toured overseas with the New Zealand Youth Choir this year.
Talamaivao is intensely proud of her Samoan heritage, and how palagi are embracing the music of her ancestral home and other Pacific nations.
For example, in this year's The Big Sing she helped coach Saints Alive choir from St Cuthbert's School in Auckland to perform the Samoan song of farewell, "Tofa Mai Feleni".
But she says it's a shame more Pasifika are not able to continue their choral journey into adulthood.
She says the cost of touring and performing is a major barrier for many young Pasifika singers.
Will Kingi, Pasifika Navigator for Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand (CANZ) Photo: Supplied
Wananga organiser Will Kingi, who is Choirs Aotearoa's Pasifika Navigator, says the increasingly multicultural nature of New Zealand choral singing is one of its great strengths, but it's important the different cultures making that contribution get support as well as recognition.
