Cento Moana Pacific Oceania: or, Vai te Vaka, Vai te Vaka, Vai te Vaka!

Compiled by Bridgette Amilcar, sent as a guide & warning to Reef Shark

'We should not be defined by the smallness of our islands, but by the greatness of our oceans.' 

—Epeli Hau'ofa

'Fear made the palagi's car

The colour of the superior sea'  

—Allen Curnow

'Tonu, Tonu, Tonu, Seka, Seka, Seka. 

Ko manu o kauvaka e solo valevale' 

—Tuvaluan children's song, 'Avaga Sina mo Loutali e'

'I cannot see my land clearly. Isn't this symptom

of a psychotic state?'

—Robin Hyde

'Toro cake na ua, toro cake, toro cake na kolokolo'

—Fijian proverb

'Vai te vaka, vai te vaka, vai te vaka!'

—Magical chant, to be used to attract trading vessels to Nutao atoll

'Koe Kuohili 'i Mu'a, he Lotolotonga 'i Loto, he Kaha'u ''i Mui'

'The Past in the Front, the Present in the Centre, the Future in the Back'

—Tongan proverb, as quoted by Futa Helu under a grove of coconut trees, summer of 1998/99