Te Vaka, from Polynesia, will be making its debut performance in Canada at the Mission Folk Music Festival on July 24.

MFMF has been nurturing a worldwide reputation for its programming and it’s no surprise to see several exclusive international debuts taking place at the unpretentious but serious music festival. It has earned one of the top spots as the best world music festival in the Pacific Northwest.

Te Vaka, the iconic Polynesian group, has performed major festivals and venues around the world and has won every music prize for South Pacific music.

Te Vaka’s music is traditionally influenced – tribal, powerful and rootsy yet melodic, warm, earthy and atmospheric. The log drums – ‘pate’ in the native language – are an important part of the sound, capturing the infectious rhythms of the South Seas and creating a Pacific groove. 

The music has a very deep and passionate involvement with the Islands of the South Pacific. The songs tell the story of Polynesia, from the original pioneers who traveled across the largest ocean on the planet with a simple canoe (vaka) to the current destruction of many of the smaller Pacific Islands such as Tokelau and Tuvalu due to the effects of global warming.

The songs are mostly in the language of Tokelau, an original dialect of old Polynesia, but in the later albums there are songs in Samoan and Tuvaluan also.

Te Vaka has recently released an album that has entered the European Wold Music Chart at number four.

Te Vaka performs on the festival main stage as part of the World Sounds concert Saturday (July 25) night. The festival runs from July 35 to July 25 at Fraser River Heritage Park. Tickets to the festival are available available at www.missionfolkmusicfestival.ca.