The meetuupaki is an ancient Tongan group dance, already reported by early European navigators like captain Cook. This dance has been traditionally designed for men although women may take part if there are not enough men. The (mee tuu paki resembles a kind of war dance; albeit, it is done with little symbolic paddles as opposed to arms.
Dress
The dress for this dance invariably is a large sheet of ngatu wrapped around the body from chest to ankles. A girdle of leaves around the waist is often added.
Movements
The movements are largely with the paddles in the hand, but the proper addition of the small and subtle movements with the head and legs make the difference between a good and poor performance. The paddles are not used for row like gestures, but are rotated around, moved to left and right or up and down. The dancers start in one row, maybe two if there are many, but from time to time split up the rows in what seems chaotic movements, yet at the end they come back again in perfect unison.
Music
It is usually the dance master who operates a little slit drum to keep the beat, while the dancers themselves sing the song, possibly with assistance of others. The beat is always slow in the beginning, but goes faster and faster when the end approaches to excite the dancers and the public.
History
The words of the songs are in a largely unintelligible language, although some sailor terms can be distinguished. As there is also a version of the meetuupaki in Futuna, called tapaki even though different, a link in that direction seems to be most likely. The theory is that the meetuupaki was composed somewhere in the 12th to 16th century by an internationally oriented poet on Uvea to honour the Tui Tonga empire. When the Tui Tonga Kauʻulufonua I had lost some decisive battles, which heralded the end of the empire and of the political function of the Tui Tonga, he was forced to give meetuupaki to Futuna, where the parts are still guarded as secrets. In addition the Futunans declared that from now on the Tui Tonga title should be inferior to any Futunan title, and if ever a Tongan boat would make it to their island, it would be destroyed and offered to the gods.. A Tongan proverb: vete fakafutuna, still refers to something to be dismantled completely. There is also a theory that the meetuupaki was a kind of Tongan passport of olden times. When a boat from Tonga arrived on one of the conquered islands the crew was invited to show their typical dance to prove that they came from Tonga and not from somewhere else. As they then still had their paddles in their hand, using them in a dance seem quite straight forward.
