Tinakula Festival Honours Temotu’s Cultural Diversity
BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
THE sounds of Temotu province’s traditional and contemporary songs — dancing, singing, and onstage music included — mixed with the smells of roasted food and the colors of Temotu-inspired products was the scene at the inaugural Tinakula Festival of Arts and Culture over the weekend.
Hundreds of people flocked to Solomon Islands National University (SINU) Village, east of Honiara, last month from 28-29 July 2023 to celebrate one of the most culturally diverse provinces in the Solomon Islands.
Temotu is the easternmost province of the country and it consists of the following group of islands: Anuta, Duff Islands (including Taumako), Fatutaka, Malo, Reef Islands (including Fenualoa, Lomlom, Makalom, Matema, Nalongo and Nupani, Nifiloli, Nukapu, Patteson Shoal, Pigeon Island and Pileni), Santa Cruz Islands (including the large island Nendö), Tikopia, Tinakula, Utupua and Vanikoro (including Banie and Teanu).
The festival aims to celebrate Temotu’s heritage and identity into the future, bringing together artists, performers, and cultural practitioners from across the province to promote their diverse preserved traditional arts and culture, while also providing a platform to showcase the province’s unique identity and traditions to a wider audience, in the process fostering a deeper cultural understanding.
Tinakula Festival Association (TFA) Committee Member, Stephen Hachi from Santa Cruz, Temotu’s largest Island told SOLOMON TOURISM the Festival is a platform that was created with its constitution with people like well-known local Temotu artists like Jaro local, Junior Paikai and other Temotu artists and youths.
“We thought of the idea of giving Temotuans a platform to show off our cultures and identity.
“The constitutional intent of the Tinakula Festival is to bring all Temotuans together.
“There is only one goal in the constitution. Our goal is to create the Tinakula festival as a means of unifying all Temotuans. It is essentially a platform where Temotu residents can come together to share their culture with others,” said Hachi.
The Tinakula Festival Association is dedicated to preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of the Temotu people in the Solomon Islands. Through the annual Tinakula Festival of Arts and Culture, the Association aims to showcase the traditions, arts, and crafts of the Temotu community while fostering cultural exchange and appreciation.
Hachi further added that the festival was created because many of the associations and cultural groups that Temotuans founded in Honiara had dissolved.
“In Temotu, there are many different cultural groups. The platform’s purpose is to highlight Temotu’s diverse cultures. Being the only province in Solomon with two different races—Polynesian and Melanesia—we are interested in developing a festival. So, it’s somewhat diverse,” he said.
“We, therefore, reasoned that we at least have a platform to showcase our cultures. Even the grass and the land are not ours. There is nothing on the island that belongs to the community. It is termed the Tinakula Festival because it is the province’s iconic structure, to which people can refer or relate.
“Therefore, if they heard, for instance, Tinakula Festival, people will know that it is a festival of the Temotu province. It’s more similar to a mini-show,” he noted.
The next festival is expected to be held in Lata, Temotu provincial capital next year.
He explained that the committee has very few plans to hold the festival outside of the provinces and a model for bringing the Festival to the people.
Nende Dancers from Santa Cruz in Temotu province at this year’s inaugural Tinakula Festival of Arts and Culture held at the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) Village, east of Honiara.
“We don’t want to focus on having the festival in one place but want to bring the festival to the people. So there has been some thought, unconfirmed but perhaps we are looking at Lata, Santa Cruz for our next Festival. We can go to Noro because we have a large number of Temotuans living in the Western Province, in the Central province like Nukufero, Tulagi, as well in Makira,” Hachi said.
He added that another reason to start this Tinakula Festival is that there are many Temotuans who have been raised and now live in Honiara.
“We have a lot of young children growing up in Honiara and our province is so far away, they know they are from Temotu, but they have no chance to go back to their province. So, the Tinakula Festival is about us coming as one family, one people, and knowing who we are,” he said.
