Rachael Hall

(Re)sounding the Vā brings ancient Tongan music traditions, instruments and sonic pathways into the present, giving voice to ancestral ways of being, knowing and doing.

‘Oku toe fakafoki mai ‘ehe (Toe)fakaongo ‘ae Vā ‘ae ngaahi tukufakaholo hiva, me‘alea moe ngaahi halanga-fasi FakaTonga tupu‘a, kihe lotolotonga, koe le‘o kihe founga ‘iai, vakai moe fai tu‘ufonua.

Grounded in ongo, a Tongan concept encompassing sound, hearing and embodied feeling – the works engage in dialogue with archival collections, language and the fonua (people and environment) to navigate resonant futures.

Central to the exhibition is the fangufangu, the Tongan bamboo nose flute. The artists work in close relationship with three fangufangu from Te Papa’s Pacific collection. Through practices of design, making, composition and performance, these practices extend across sonic, visual and material forms, activating a relational space (vā) that reaches beyond the present, into both ancestral pasts and unfolding futures.