Lemi Ponifasio: International Dance Day Message 2016

Salā Lemi Ponifasio is a Samoan choreographer, stage director, designer and artist. In 1995 he founded MAU in Auckland, New Zealand as transformative action working with communities and artists from all over the world. MAU is a Samoan word that means a declaration to the truth of a matter.

KARAKIA
(Prayer)

touch the cosmos
the source of our divinity
illuminating
the face of the ancestors
so we can see our children

woven above beside below
unite all within
our flesh and bones
and memory

the Earth is turning
humans in mass migration
turtles gather in silent preparation
the heart is injured

make dance
a movement of love
a movement of justice
the light of truth

- Lemi Ponifasio