The NZDF Maori Cultural Group recently performed alongside 13 other nations at the 50th Anniversary of Malaysian Independence in KL. The group was a tri-service affair with members of the Navy, NZ Army and RNZAF represented. Here are some postcards from members of HMNZS Te Kaha while they were in Malaysia.
Lt Emma Gibbs
Hi everyone,
Mon 3 Sept, 2007
Well we've been in Kuala Lumpur for three days now and its been three days of hustle and bustle. After a late start, with Te Kaha berthing a day late in Lumut due to issues with the berth, the team met up with the Army and Airforce members of the Maori Culture Group (MCG) at the Grand Seasons Hotel where all countries performing in the Tattoo are staying. Once we'd arrived and had our rooms issued, it was straight onto a bus and off to the Merdeka Stadium where the Tattoo would be staged. However, this was no ordinary bus ride, as there were about 13 buses all travelling in convoy with nothing less than a police escort! Three police motorbikes zipped all around the convoy with sirens blaring and lights flashing, parting the traffic to let us through (reminding many of us of Moses parting the Red Sea). This made sure our transit through rush hour traffic was quick and painless. There were a few occasions when we had to avert our eyes as the bus would get incredibly close to some of the cars and motorbikes who didn't get out of the way quick enough, but the expect crunch never came and we arrived at the venue without incident.
Once we arrived, we went to our assigned tent and started practising. The arrival of a typical Malaysian downpour soon after meant that our practise was contained to our tent, as officials would not expose the performers (and their instruments) to the rain. What soon became evident was the uniqueness of our performance. While every single other country's performance consisted of their Joint Forces bands, with New Zealand the only instruments were our voices, our actions and stomping to replace the rigid marching of the bands. Soon after we started rehearsing, our tent was slowly filled with members of other countries, drawn in by our singing, poi song and of course the Haka. Because of the persisting downpour, after several hours, officials decided to cancel the rehearsal, and by the time the buses arrived to take us back to the hotel, it was about 2300. It was straight off to bed to get in plenty of sleep for an early start the next morning.
Tues 4 Sept, 2007
After a 0530 start, we arrived at the stadium (once again in convoy with our police escort, feeling much like a rock band), ready to start our rehearsal at 0730. All around us are various countries with whom I've had very little to do with during my career in the Navy. We have Korea on one side of our tent, and Pakistan on the other. Nearby are Jordan, Philippines, USA, Thailand and Brunei. Singapore and the UK are the only countries who we have worked with at sea before, so it was nice to see some people we recognised. Within hours of us arriving, I realised just how popular New Zealanders are. It took me a while to figure out why, and it dawned on me that its because we are such a happy nation. Our faces are always animated and smiling and we have genuine enjoyment of everything we do. We wave and call out hello's to others as we pass them, and like the previous evening when they were drawn to our performance, they are drawn to us because of our uniqueness. Our members, both male and female are constantly asked to be in photos, and the females especially are the recipients of many stares, as most of the countries are unused to seeing women as uncovered as we are. Our uniform of the black MCG T-Shirt and shorts is obviously far less than they are used to seeing, and this is backed up by the instructions that our females received, saying we were not to wear anything less than a T-shirt when at the stadium because of the Muslim countries that we'd offend. Obviously, with our Kakahoe being somewhat more exposing than a T-shirt, that is acceptable because it is part of our performance, but it will be interesting to see what happens when we have our dress rehearsal tomorrow night.
Our day rehearsal today was a real effort. The heat is the biggest hurdle for many of us, with the opening ceremony requiring us to stand to attention for 40 mins while the bands play a variety of songs awaiting the arrival of the Malaysian King and Queen. In that time, the sweat starts as small droplets on the forehead and evolves into full-blown rivers as it runs off our bodies. The inevitable itches start up and drive us half mad with the effort of not scratching, and of course the body then starts succumbing to the rigidity of standing to attention, the calves start burning, the heels start hurting and the knees feel swollen. It's a relief to finally march off and seek the coolness of the shade and our air conditioned tent.
The evening rehearsal was somewhat better, with a lot of the heat of the day gone, but there was still the standing to attention for 40 mins for the opening ceremony, and another 20 mins for the closing ceremony. What the organisers did add in for the closing ceremony was for the groups to dance to their
specially written pop song for Malaysia’s 50th anniversary. Its an incredibly cheesy pop song, but we love it for giving us an opportunity to move!
After our evening performance, we finally get back to the hotel just after midnight, and once again, straight to bed for an early start for Wednesday.
Wed 5 Sept, 2007
Today we are all a bit tired, but the excitement is building because we have a full dress rehearsal tonight. Our morning rehearsal is a replica of yesterdays, long periods standing at attention, listening to the bands playing their songs, then watching the individual countries performing, and then the closing ceremony. Our performance is hindered somewhat by the sound system, as we have no bass drums or trumpets to blast, rather just our voices that can only go so loud. Although it still sounds great, according to LT CDR Rainey, in a stadium that seats 40,000 people, it's going to lose some of its effect. Hopefully they will come up with a solution to help that. There is one country whose rehearsals we keep missing, the Philippines, who do acrobatics as part of their performance. We've seen the photos of their previous performances, and it has them leaping through flaming hoops, and all manner of feats, so my goal is to try and see them on the night.
Our group has decided that due to the heat, we need to do a test run on one person to see if the Moko can stay on long enough for the whole performance, or it the heat and ensuing sweat will wash it off too soon. The test run went well on our leader, Pirikahu, so the decision has been made for everyone to wear the Moko. I'm really glad because it adds so much more to our presentation to have it on. The other countries couldn't believe what we looked like in our full dress at tonight's dress rehearsal, imagine how much we'll blow them away on the night with our faces in full Moko!
One thing that has been an adventure with this visit is the food. They put on breakfast for us at the hotel, lunch and dinner at the venue and sometimes a late night supper at about 2300 too. It consists of rice and a curry sauce of some description, with today’s lunch being a fish curry - its become a bit of a guessing game amongst some of us trying to figure out what they're going to serve us up next. I do miss 'normal' food though, and some people in the group have been suffering from the richness of the food. I hate to say it, but McDonalds has had a visit from me since we've been here.
Sun 9 Sept, 2007
Last night was the second performance and the VIP night with the King and other dignitaries attending. It was a sold out show and the audience had these plastic clacker things that made an awesome racket whenever they applauded. As with the first night I wasn't nervous at all, even knowing that RADM Jack Steer, CJF, was going to be watching. It rained light showers most of the night which helped a lot with keeping the temperature a few degrees cooler, so it wasn't quite so painfully hot as previous nights. Once again we were clapped on and off by the other countries as we walked from our tent to the arena, and had never ending requests for photos from everyone backstage, from the performers to the workers. Our Airforce photographer has been taking some amazing photos, some of which we are getting framed and hading out as gifts to some of the Malaysians who have been a huge help to us over the past week. Tonight is our last performance and although I won't miss the 0100 finishes, as I don my kakahu and paint my moko on for the last time I will be feeling somewhat nostalgic and maybe even a teeny bit reluctant that it is finishing. Although there have been a number of issues with the hotel which were an embuggerance, the experiences we've had, the people from other countries we've met and the camaraderie that we have grown amongst the team has far outweighed the negatives...though I won't be eating rice and curry for the next six months!!!
Tues 11 Sept, 2007
What an amazing last few days! It’s unbelievable how fast time has flown. We had our final performance on Sunday night and the excitement and energy was so intense you could almost taste it! The Opening Ceremony went as planned, though a little shorter than on Saturday night because the King wasn’t attending so the pomp and ceremony was significantly reduced. When it came time for our performance, we were totally psyched. To add to the general feeling of excitement was the fact that LT CDR Mick Rainey, our Australian exchange Officer on the Ship who was also the Maori Cultural Officer, had donned a piu piu, had his face painted with a moko, and was going to stun the crowd of thousands with his debut performance in the group. For an Australian he did a fantastic job, and it really added to the whole “specialness” of the evening.
My favourite part of the whole night was the closing ceremony. The Malaysians had made a pop song especially for their 50th Anniversary, and previous nights we’d been told to dance along to it in the Closing ceremony while we were stilled formed up. Sunday night though, we totally cut lose and taking our ‘New Zealand’ sign with us, proceeded to dance, pose and have a grand old time with all the other bands around us. The Scottish band had been given strict instructions that they were to remain stoic and still during this song, so you can imagine the fun we had, creating havoc around them while they had to remain standing at attention – it was a lot like when tourists attempt to provoke a response from the Queens Guard when they’re standing at attention outside the Palace with their big fluffy black hats. I was told later by one of the Scots that they were petrified we were going to lift up their kilts – but I assured them we wouldn’t do anything so vulgar … really it was just because we hadn’t thought of it!
Every other country there spent the next 30 mins asking us for photos, and the whole group was practically mobbed by our fellow performers as they used the last opportunity to be photographed with the cool Kiwi’s. It still amazes me how popular we were, and that the novelty hadn’t worn off for them by then – it was certainly starting to wear off for some of us, the constant requests for photos, but we all good natured about it and painted bright smiles on our faces and posed for the hundredth time.Getting back to our tent afterwards, everyone was hyped up. We had a quick clean up then back to the hotel where some went on to celebrate and some just went to bed, too exhausted to do much else. The following day was a free day until the evening when we had the official dinner to close proceedings. The menu was exotic to say the least, and after trying Shark Fin Soup (and wishing I hadn’t), some very exotic looking mushrooms, and good old fried rice (finally a dish I recognise), the real fun of the evening began. We’d had some local entertainment comprising of singers and dancers for the whole evening, but once people had finished eating, there was an opportunity for individual countries to get up on stage and give impromptu performances. The most amazing of them was from the Koreans. Their first performance was two small Asian men who did karaoke to Italian Opera of all things, and for such small men they had huge voices. Then, just when we thought the Koreans had really outdone themselves, they followed up with a second outstanding performance. Using a plastic rubbish bin, three wooden bar stools and drum sticks, they put on a highly entertaining display of innovative drumming and entertainment.
Following hot on their heels were the Yanks, with their rock band doing numbers from old rock and new, with a Santana song being the highlight. Unfortunately, as many members of other bands had been struck down with pretty nasty fevers, bad stomachs and vomiting, there were many countries who didn’t put on performances, but what was done was done with class and panache. And so ends my experience at the Kuala Lumpur International Festival 2007. A four hour bus ride back to the Ship the next day was the perfect opportunity to catch up on some sleep, and after unpacking and a major laundry effort, curling up into my tiny pit, it almost felt like the last 9 days had all been a bit of a dream.
See other postcards from:
Chief Petty Officer Roy Wattie
Leading Hand Jacquilin Merriman
Able Rate Eruera Shelford