Siva afi class brings the fire to Auckland’s North Shore

Pacific fire dancing classes have gotten off to a fiery start on Auckland’s North Shore.

North Harbour Siva Afi coordinator Beka Sumeo Maiava-Tafiti says while it’s been a big effort, their aim is to pass on cultural knowledge to the next generation.

“The siva tau (Samoan war dance) was almost lost in translation, so this programme is to ‘rebirth’ one of Samoa’s treasures by teaching one of its ancient forms of art through Samoan language, and stories told by movements and techniques."

Maiava-Tafiti comes from a fire dancing family, but was never taught the dance-form by her father.

“All the boys got taught apart from me and my sister. We were like his precious apples.

“It is a warrior dance that is set aside for males. The females have only picked it up over the ten years, so it’s really new.”

The new classes are free, and held on Sundays at the Transformation Academy in Northcote, with male and female tutors, many hold siva afi championship titles themselves.

Students must wear the ie lavalava, and the ailao is provided. After ten weeks, the students will showcase their new skills at a fiafia night.

​The idea came up at a family barbeque with Mani Jr Sumeo, Amo Ieriko and Mani Lavata’i.

“We were running classes in West and South Auckland, and two of our tutors and a dancer lived out these ways, so it made sense.”

A post on a few local community pages came back with 62 responses in two hours, the next step was getting a venue and some funding.

After several attempts at funding applications with Auckland councils, Maiava-Tafiti says they almost had to resort to doing it themselves.

“It was hard. Just having to prove to different boards and trying to sell what siva afi was all about, all the meetings and making slideshows, was just so much work.

“It was to the point where we were going to get a loan out to be able to fully fund the equipment.”

They were finally able to secure $10,000 of sports fast-track funding through a new trust under North Harbour sports, the North Harbour Pasifika Hauora collective.

Habour Sport Pacific Community Manager Asenati Tavita says they were excited to get on board.

“Siva afi has never been done over here. So when the opportunity came along it was like, okay, how do we support this?

“I’m already looking at how we can make it sustainable. This is one thing, but I’m looking ahead. After the ten weeks, where to from here?”

The Sports Pasifik project runs exercise programmes in schools and coaching for high school sports teams, and Tavita wants to make sure Pacific communities on the North Shore aren’t missing out on other opportunities.

“We are the poor cousins. Most of the funding goes out to South Auckland because the majority of our Pacific people are there, but we do still need services for our people out here.

“We do work up at Mahurangi College and there’s a Kiribati and Tuvalu community up there. You’ve got pockets in Northcote, then you’ve got Beachhaven and Birkenhead."