star Ridge Ponini who was one of our earliest Opera workshop
participants and a recipient of our small Motonator Grant
which we give to an aspiring arts professional who shows they
are serious about a career in the industry.
The honest truth is you have to love what you do to do it here!
Developing arts events on a Pacific Island has its challenges,
of which there are many, but when directing and producing
creative events is your professional passion and your drive
is to develop the creative industry for the Cook Islands,
all those challenges become innovative ideas that require
solutions. Theatre productions, Film and TV, Music events
and Festival direction in New Zealand or Australia has access
to venues, locations, lights, sound, and technical equipment.
In Rarotonga, where performance specific venues are limited
and equipment can be sparse it is damn tricky. When we
started the company many thought we were crazy! We often
had conversations with others who thought that what we were
attempting to do was never going to work, let alone provide
myself and my husband with a living!
In 2019 we celebrate 10 years of holding Opera in Rarotonga
an event that showcases Pacific Islands Opera singers and has
seen such talented stars the likes of Benjamin Makisi, Elisha
Fai Hulton, Samson Setu, Joel Amosa and many more grace
our shores. We have created music events on our beaches,
in parks, in restaurants, picture theatres, halls and our own
home. We have seen artists such as Will and Annie Crummer,
Ladi 6, Louis Baker, Julia Deans, Laura Collins, Bella Kalolo,
Iva Lamkum, Tina Cross, Modern Maori Quartet, Kora and
Murray Hickman of Strike Percussion.
We have developed visual arts projects with Pacific artists such
as Greg Semu for his work “The Raft of Tagata Pasifika” which
exhibited at the NGV in Melbourne in 2016, truly a work and
artist worth seeing. We have worked with Te Puia and the New
Zealand Master Arts and Crafts Institute creating a Vananga of
carving and weaving for our 2015 Constitution Celebrations
that combined our rising carving talent with New Zealand’s to
create work that now is exhibited at the High Commissioner’s
residence Ngati Pa.
It is through our years of experience in the arts industry and the
many mentors that both of us have had throughout our careers
who gave so willingly of their knowledge that we believe strongly
in giving back. We know building the professional industry
here with a commitment to standards and arts practice will
create new jobs and careers for our community. Cook Islands
talent just needs a platform to grow and that is what we do.
Our events range from large music concerts indoor and outdoor
to film workshops with Maoriland Film festival where Cook
Islands youth work with young film makers from New Zealand
to make short films that are then screened here and at the Film
festival in New Zealand. We have run two residencies here in
Rarotonga with the recipients working with our community
to create compositions that have been used in festivals and
Glenda and Mo.
Photo credit: Nari Crocrombe
theatre work. We have developed exchange programs with New
Zealand Festival of the Arts, Melbourne University, Maoriland
Film Festival, Infinity Productions in Tahiti, and this year
with all things going well will be producing the Cook Islands
Contribution to the Edinburgh Tattoo in Sydney. The scope of
what we do is large but the volume of talent and opportunities
for innovation and enterprise in the Cook Islands Creative
industry is what is incredibly exciting. Artists in the Cooks do
not have the access to funding organisations like Australia and
New Zealand so having to be innovative and extremely driven
are must have qualities.
At Motone we view the future for arts as a bright one. Our
scope has over the years included Film and TV work with
Shortland Street, Paradise café, NZ flight safety video with
Sports Illustrated models, we have welcomed on to Rarotonga
some of New Zealands best musical talents, we have toured
Cook Islands Culture to Germany, we have taken young
drummers to play alongside KORA and a cast of drummers
and choristers at the opening of the New Zealand Festival of
the Arts. We have produced visual art projects that have created
forward thinking and provocative art work and we have given
people in the Cook Islands locals and Tourists a damn good
time doing so.
So if you get a chance go to an event while you are in
Rarotonga it doesn’t have to be one of ours but our arts
community needs your support. I leave you with a quote from
the Creative City Network of Canada that no matter what
country you are from rings true.
“Arts and culture make considerable and necessary
contributions to the well-being of communities. Arts and
culture are powerful tools with which to engage communities
in various levels of change. They are a means to public dialogue,
contribute to the development of a community’s creative
learning, create healthy communities capable of action, provide
a powerful tool for community mobilisation and activism, and
help build community capacity and leadership.” ~ Creative City
Network of Canada.
Motone Productions
PO Box 658, Avarua, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Mob: +682 55228
www.motone.biz
www.facebook/motoneproductions
Escape Magazine • 47