(Day 6: 7pm)

Baron Vaea 18th September 2006

Baron Vaea - still striking at the age of 85 - stood gallant in a ta’ovala, gracefully and diplomatically fielding questions from the international media tonight.  Baron Vaea is a very close relative of the late King.  He is a former Prime Minister, the first High Commissioner to London, a WWII Royal New Zealand Airforce pilot and the eldest of the nobles of the realm (hou’eiki). 

Baron Vaea was mostly asked questions of tradition, especially about the differences between Queen Salote’s funeral and those of the late King.  The Baron explained that the funerals were very similar.  Just as before, this funeral showed the people’s mark of respect for their late Monarch, it gave them an opportunity to express their love, and work together with everyone. 

Vaea and group at Queen Salote's funeral 1965 - First in line of Nobles

This is an occasion, he said, that shows that everyone is ‘one’.   The main difference from Queen Salote’s funeral, he recalled, was that this time food has been prepared ‘off site’.  For the late King’s funeral, mourning parties have been given boxes of food to take with them.  In contrast, at Queen Salote’s funeral, the food was prepared and consumed on site.  Baron Vaea likened this to a ‘drive through’.  The new approach – providing pre-prepared food in clean white boxes has been enabled by modern technology and the advent of more advanced cooking apparatus, in conjunction with traditional ‘umu. 

The Baron was asked by Dr ‘Ana Koloto from New Zealand, about the types of ta’ovala that people were wearing at the late King’s funeral.  She explained that it was her understanding that different ta’ovala may be worn, dependent on the relationship between that person and the deceased.  She asked about the significance of the “aveave” which hang like ribbons over the ta’ovala.  She said that everyone seemed to be wearing “aveave” uniformly, without distinction and with no differentiation between rank.  What did this mean? 

Baron Vaea responded eloquently that the reason for wearing aveave - that are the same across rank - indicates that everyone is ‘one’ in the death of the King.  It emphasizes the sense that everyone is a relative of each other. 

Baron Vaea, the most senior of all the Nobles of the Realm, stressed that we all share life with one each other in these islands.  The bereavement of the late King in particular, is a time for working together as one, where everyone is ‘one’, like a family.