Meke

The meke is the composite song-and-dance complex of Indigenous (iTaukei) Fiji, in which poetry, music, and choreographed movement combine to record history, legend, genealogy, and daily life. By tradition the meke is a gift of the ancestral spirits: a composition is not authored so much as received. A gifted specialist called the daunivucu (composer/choreographer) is said to commune with deities and to be taught songs and dances in dreams over successive nights, typically three or four verses at a time. Nineteenth-century ethnographic accounts (Ratzel, 1896) record the belief that the words and steps were taught 'in the spirit world' by divine beings; in some accounts the daunivucu forgets the entire work once it has been transmitted to the dancers. This spiritual provenance gives the meke its authority as oral history and its ceremonial weight.

The meke is embedded in the ceremonial and social life of the community. It is performed to commemorate deaths, celebrate births and weddings, welcome honoured guests and chiefs, mark historic events and installations, and in earlier times to invoke the protection of deities before war. As a storytelling medium in a formerly non-literate society, it preserves and transmits the memory of the vanua (land and people).

Several principal types are recognised. The meke wesi (spear dance) and meke i wau (club dance) are vigorous, martial men's dances displaying strength, agility and warrior prowess, performers wielding spears, clubs and fans. The seasea is a graceful standing women's dance, often performed with fans for celebratory occasions. The vakamalolo is a seated dance (its name linked to Malolo island) performed by seated dancers using the upper body, arms and hands. The taralala is a more modern, informal social dance in which couples move together, reflecting later, foreign-influenced practice. Other named forms include the meke ni manumanu (imitating animals) and ruasa. Historically the dances were performed by groups of men only or women only, though contemporary and tourism performances increasingly mix genders.

Technically, the meke relies on tightly coordinated unison: rhythmic swaying, stamping, hand and arm gestures, and rises and falls of the body that illustrate the sung text rather than free improvisation. Men's movements are strong and virile; women's are subtler and more fluid. Dancers wear the salusalu (garland), vesa (leafy arm and ankle bands) and are anointed with scented coconut oil so the skin glistens.

Musically, the seated vakatara ensemble drives the performance with layered vocal chant and percussion: the lali (hardwood slit gong), the derua (bamboo stamping tubes), beating sticks, and cobo, a resonant cupped-hand clapping. A lead singer/chant leader sets and carries the text while the group answers in harmony, the tempo and intensity shifting to match martial or lyrical passages. Audiences traditionally show appreciation not by applause but by calling thanks and presenting gifts such as cloth, mats and oils to the performers. The meke remains a living tradition, central to national celebrations, village ceremonies and cultural presentations across the Fiji islands.