Te Vaka - Pate Pate

 As well as listening to contemporary mainstream music mainly through my children's song choices, I also listen to Samoan and some Cook Islands music. I also enjoy listening to a variety of Pasifika music with that Pacific beat and this was one that I really enjoyed back in the 1990s. 

Te Vaka is one band that has won international awards but might be little known in New Zealand. The lead vocalist and song writer is known to be half Tokelauan and half Tuvalu born in Samoa but their music is a fusion of many Pasifika nations incorporated within.

This particular song by Te Vaka - Pate Pate was at a concert in Apia, Samoa and I remember using it as a backing track to a performance play that I presented with a group at Aotea Centre back in 1999 with Marama Papau (before she came on Tagata Pasifika as a TV host).

So glad to have music such as this when we're braving the cold winter nights of New Zealand in the dead of winter. Such music softens the soul and reminds me of warm weather by the beach and lazy summer days with not a care in the world.

Thank God for Pasifika music to dream away...