By
Brenda Andre, VTO Santo.
This year’s
watermusic festival was held at Deco Stop Lodges swimming pool on Thursday
31st January 2008.
Water music is originally from the island of Gaua. It was
formed in 1945 after all these years the music was performed during
death ceremonies and Christmas Day. In the years 1998 the music was
exposed to tourists and has been till today. The music is normally
performed by a group of women in water and making different rhythms by the
hands hitting the water.
There are 7 different sounds performed during each show:
Welcome sound of water fall
Sound of fish swimming
Sound of flying fishing when traveling by ship
Sound of the swells
hitting the rocks
Sound of the pet fish washed ashore
Sound of the
rain and thunder
Sound copied of beating of tam-tam during custom
dance
The ladies all covered in leaves and small group danced to
the rhythms along the poolside.
It is very interesting to watch as this shows how in
our society we are blessed with different talented skills. However
Mayumi from Wrecks to Rainforest is working closely with this Banks group
and as you can see attached an invitation has been sent out for this
Saturday to a Custom Dance group from Banks. The group is planning to set
up a customary village e.g. Ekasup Village. Also included in the activities is the “Water Music
“.So if this project works out well tourists can visit a custom village at
Show Ground which will mainly run by Banks group.
