Dancing with fire knives: the growth of Siva Afi in Aotearoa

Next weekend is one of Aoteaora New Zealand's cornerstone summer festivals - Auckland's Pasifika, celebrated across eight Island stages at Western Springs in Auckland. As it heads towards dark, however, another festival takes over. It celebrates one of the Pacific's most distinctive performance traditions: Siva Afi or Samoan fire knife dancing. Now in its sixth year, the Siva Afi Festival is running as part of the Auckland Arts Festival. Fire knife dancers from Tahiti, the Cook Islands, Samoa, Hawai'i and around Aotearoa come together for nightly competition, exhibition and 'ava. The festival is run by Siva Afi Aotearoa, a three-year old organisation dedicated to promoting and supporting the art of this dance. This is a distinctive artform. It was originally used by warriors to show off their skill with a lethal long hook-ended war-club or knife, the Nifo'oti. It is twirled, thrown and caught with an array of fast movement, to equally fast drumming. It's now performed across the Pacific and is growing as a competitive festival event. The Siva Afi Festival is running at Mangere Arts Centre Nga Tohu o Uenuku from the 7th to the 9th of March. Culture 101 welcomed director Tauanu'u Amo Ieniko to introduce the artform.