(Re)turning to loto, igniting mālie and māfana: Tongan maau and faiva as expressed rhythmic entanglement

Abstract

To charm the loto is a (re)turn to our Indigenous Pacific knowings and becomings. Such a return is heart-warming and a fascination with spiritual reverence. Calling forth mālie and māfana, the potent spiritual energies that ignite the loto, laumālie and ‘atamai (soul, spirit and mind), I appreciate and embrace the call to (re)turn to our ways. As cultural sources, maau (poetry) and faiva (dance) permit ways in which Tongan knowledges are expressed, mediated and shared. I foreground mālie and māfana as coupled spirits expressed as (re)presentations of rhythmic entanglement which are portrayed and unpacked through Tongan maau and faiva. Igniting mālie and māfana affirms the Indigenising of practice in the postcolonial Moana that evokes rhythmic sensibilities, grounded in the ways Tongan and other indigenous Pacific communities exist and connect materially and spiritually across their worlds.