E to’u tupuna, tell me what you see

This blog is a part of a series of self-reflection papers written by students at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington. As part of the paper Digital Oceania: Writing in the Pacific students were tasked to write a Digital Taonga assignment based on a collection item from the digitalpasifik website. Written by Mauatua Fa'ara-Reynolds, this reflection piece shares her encounter with the "Parau e honu," a Tahitian face plate from the Heva Tūpāpā’u, a chief mourner's costume used in ancient Tahitian mourning rituals.

E to’u tupuna, tell me what you see E rai to’u e faaruia noa nei e Tupuna mau no Tapoa Te aito ia i faanui i Porapora

You are a masked mask behind glass case behind glass screen coded into te Po where are all the great tupuna live. A hee a tena mate, ta’u arii e, Tai moua ia paia A pu aera i te Mehani

Must I reach into the dark portal of pixels and blue light just to touch and see eye to eye with you

E umere te Atua i te Po O Huria ua mate I na tia i te aha, mate iti pure’a mai ra?

Cheeks splattered with mourners’ blood once touched those 2D shells must I give my mother’s name to the god of the Dark Web to bond blood

I te papa ua mea Mata’i huru e teie, e vahine hau e O Moehonu ua taa i te roi toetoe e

Artificial marama has turned my eyes red; matauteute I am in the search bar trying to see with your eyes

Ua moe te to’i i Porapora Te vai na i Vaiotaha Eaha tau e mehi na, e Tefaaroa?

We face each other — Mata i mata — Tell me, is that right? I sob into Google Translate trying to find you Mate aenei Tepeete Te taata ia i mau ai te papa upea E ora ai Faanui e

If I could just backspace your display date your format your availability gather the 1s and 0s and exile them to te po then finally we could look at each other, see in your eyes a reflection, not of me but of a time gone by rōtahi

Translations Stanzas Stanza 1 = My sky is darkened to me now! / True ancestor of Tapoa / the warrior who made Borabora great Stanza 3 = Glide down thither dead, O my chief / by the slippery mountain / blow wind around the Mehani (the portal into te po) Stanza 5 = The god of the darkness will praise him / the overthrown one who is dead / what can quiet [grief for the] dear face so pallid Stanza 7 = At the altar stone tis done / a strange kind of wind is this, o woman of peace / Moehonu is separated to the cold bed [of death] alas Stanza 9 = His axe sleeps at Borabora / it lies at Vaiotaha / What art thou lamenting, o tefaaroa? Stanza 11 = Dead is Tepeete / he was the man who held the helm of state (or, weights of the fish-net) / so that Faanui is saved Words Matauteute = red eyes, also what navigators were called Mata i mata = face to face (an incorrect translation) Rōtahi = Concentration of the mind and energy on a single goal, or unity of hearts Reflection

The item I chose for this assignment was the ‘Parau e honu’ held at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Tahitian face plate that was part of the Hēvā Tūpāpā’u, the chief mourner’s costume. Pre-colonisation and during early periods of European encounters, Tahitians participated in a special mourning ritual for their chiefs or monarchy. When someone possessing great mana passed into te po, the village’s local priest or a Chief’s relative would don the chief mourner’s costume. In doing this, they became the Heva Tūpāpā’u, leading the nevaneva (a group of ‘bewildered’ men) through the village on a rampage. Both the Heva Tūpāpā’u and the nevaneva were armed with clubs and spears, so anyone caught in their path was killed. The Heva Tūpāpā’u wore an intricate and elaborate costume around seven feet tall, consisting of a headpiece, a breastplate, several tiputa, a cloak of feathers, and a mask. Since the head is considered tapu, the headdress and mask are perhaps the most significant components of the Chief Mourner’s costume. The mask comprises two conjoined mother-of-pearl shells, with only one tiny hole for the wearer to see out of. As soon as they don the mask, their identity is transformed into that of the sacred Heva Tūpāpā’u and is plunged into te po, a realm of darkness.

"Chief Mourners’ Costume from the Society Islands." The Coconet. Accessed September 5, 2024. https://www.thecoconet.tv/coco-docos/pacific-history/chief-mourners-costume-from-the-society-islands/.

It was this idea of the Heva Tūpāpā’u having limited sight that drew me in. When he was on his grief-stricken rampage, submerged in te po while still being in the realm of the living, what could he see? And what could he not see? I liken this to my experience of viewing the Parau e honu and, more broadly, my experience of trying to learn my culture through the internet. Both the object and the ancestral knowledge attached to it are separate and detached from me, both in a digital context and a museum setting. So, my poem seeks to discuss this digital disconnect between the ancestor and the descendant, evident in its format.

‘E to’u tupuna, tell me what you see’ is somewhat of a conversation between the object and me. Both of us follow separate trajectories, seemingly disjointed, but upon closer inspection are partially linked. The Heva Tūpāpā’u recites an ancient dirge for a fallen monarch, which I have used from Alexander’s “Specimens of Ancient Tahitian Poetry” (1893). Opposite this is my own conversation to the Heva Tūpāpā’u, where I long for a closer connection to the object and the person who wore it. I lament the knowledge I do not have about the artefact and its surrounding context. Moreover, I show frustration that, despite being so physically close, it is still separated from me and existing in a computerised world. Like the Heva Tūpāpā’u, I am in a world of darkness trying to see and learn with a limited scope. Although I feel detached from the object and its history, I unknowingly mirror the Heva Tūpāpā’u, coincidentally making similar references.

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Heva Tūpāpā’u (Mourning costume) 1700's; Tahiti https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1769587

The first stanza reflects on the fallen tupuna, which the second stanza does too. The third stanza references Mehani, a portal to the underworld in a mountain in Ra’iatea. Then, the fourth stanza describes having to ‘reach’ into a digital portal (different in context, but still similar). The fifth stanza discusses the dead face of the monarch, while the sixth imagines the now long-gone face and blood of the Heva Tūpāpā’u. The seventh stanza depicts the altar at which the dead body lies, which I parallel in the eighth stanza, where I describe myself as being at ‘’ looking for answers. Here, I acknowledge that the search bar is of raised status in a contemporary LCCM Digital Archive Taonga Creative Assignment 6 context; an all-knowing place of worship. The ninth stanza asks the land what it is mourning, and the tenth asks the Heva Tūpāpā’u (who I am mourning) for answers and direction. Finally, the eleventh stanza expresses this notion of salvation through death, which I mirror in the last stanza, wishing I could remove the artefact from the digital world so I could exist alongside it.

With a disjointed format, physically separating the two conversations, and consistent references to the digital world, I seek to elucidate my experience of viewing the Parau e honu on the Digital Pasifik website. Even though the experience evoked strong feelings of disconnect, detachment, and distance, the subject still echoes the mana and story of the object.

Bibliography Alexander, W. D. (1893). SPECIMENS OF ANCIENT TAHITIAN POETRY. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 2(1), 55–59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20701272