25 years of Pacific Underground: 'Meet me at the Dog House'

Friday, 2 August 2019

Tanya Muagututi'a and Posenai Mavaega of Pacific Underground.

The Dog House once ruled a corner of Cathedral Square in Christchurch.

A small 24-hour burger joint, it was sandwiched between the Cat's Pyjamas, offering all manner of fried goods including the coveted $1 bag of vinegar chips, and the perpendicular Gothic-style The Press building.

Its attraction? An unofficial meeting place, it offered 20c video arcade games - Defender, Mortal Kombat, Hyper Olympics and NBA Jam - and had a reputation for its deep-fried mushrooms.

A former colleague, Ian Knott, recalls that while working a night shift during the 1990s he used to saunter across from The Press to get a 'Both Barrels Bullseye'.

* Tusiata Avia's Wild Dogs finally return home to Christchurch

* Christchurch's Pacific heart: Life, love and loss at 18 Wattle Drive**

'A milkshake with a raw egg in it and a load of whipped cream on top. How I am not dead is a mystery.'

Oscar Kightley is a key part of the arts collective Pacific Underground.

After a night out, many stopped at The Dog House to buy a bag of hot chips and put 20c in the 'spacies'. In the early 1990s it was possible to have a good night out with just a few dollars.

If you lost your friends on a dancefloor, you'd reconnect with them at The Dog House. Outside people sat on car bonnets talking to the small hours.

Tanya Muagututi'a, who with husband Posenai Mavaega leads arts collective Pacific Underground - says for many Pacific Islanders, it was a crucial meeting point in the city.

When searching for a title for their show, the finale of the Christchurch Arts Festival, they knew it 'had to be' Meet Me at the Dog House.

The Dog House is long gone but Pacific Underground recently marked its 25th anniversary.

The Dog House, thought to be the first 24-hour fast-food outlet in Christchurch was in Cathedral Square. It closed in December 1997 but for many the memories remain.

Since its beginnings as a grassroots theatre initiative in Christchurch in 1993, it has helped launch the artistic careers of Oscar Kightley, David Fane, Ladi6 aka Karoline Tamati and her partner in life and beats Brent Park, Dallas Tamaira of Fat Freddy's Drop and Scribe.

The Muagutitui'a sisters, Mishelle and Tanya, co-founded Pacific Underground with a group of friends - Kightley, Simon Small, Michael Hodgson and Erolia Ifopo - based around their love of performing and a desire to share their stories.

Tanya Muagutitui'a and Mavaega have quietly nurtured Pasifika talent.

Its first theatre production, Fresh Off the Boat, written by Kightley and Small, opened on November 17, 1993 in a tiny theatre at the Arts Centre.

In 2016, it joined the ranks of Herbs, Annie Crummer and Ardijah when Pacific Underground was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Pacific Music Awards but many in Christchurch are still unaware it exists.

Pacific Underground staged 10 Pacific Arts Festivals in Christchurch from 2001 and, for many years, had an office at the Dux de Lux at the Arts Centre.

'The Dux was very special to us,' says Mavaega. 'It encouraged and supported the local live music industry across all the genres and we capitalised on that by putting our people into the bar downstairs. We pretty much became part of the furniture at the Dux and we really miss it.'

Muagutitui'a recalls people clutching glasses of Ginger Tom often opening their office door while searching for the Dux's toilet.

'It was always good for a laugh,' she says. 'We joked about installing a trapdoor.'

After the 2011 earthquakes the building was deemed unsafe. At the same time, their home, which they shared with extended family in the east, was red-zoned and later demolished.

Since then, Pacific Underground has been based out of Auckland.

This week the couple returned to Christchurch to peer through wire netting at the Arts Centre. Eight years later the Dux de Lux is still out of bounds.

'It's a big deal for us to come here and do the closing show of the festival,' says Muagutitui'a.

Her sister, Mishelle, agrees: 'We are treating it like a homecoming for the whole PU family.'

With Fat Freddy's Drop, Dallas Tamaira aka Joe Dukie, has played to thousands of people around the world. He credits Pos Mavaega of Pacific Underground, and his father as his main ''musical heroes''.

As we wander through the Arts Centre reminiscing about places that no longer exist, Tanya Muagutitui'a recalls people telling her Pacific Underground should find its own space but she was determined to occupy the Arts Centre because it was 'for everyone in arts in the city, not just some'.

She and her husband, who have given so much to the arts in this city, sit on a bench preparing to be filmed when someone from an Arts Centre office announces we need to 'pay a $57.50 fee to the office'.

We decline, walk a dozen steps to the right and film outside the Arts Centre instead.

'The 25th anniversary of Pacific Underground is about being able to have a presence and a voice, a Pasifika voice in this very English city,' says Muagutitui'a.

'To be able to uplift our community by bringing awareness of our issues and who we are and who we are as Christchurch, South Island Pasifika, and being as inclusive as we can about telling our stories and giving our perspective.'

Dallas Tamaira aka Joe Dukie, the velvet voice of Fat Freddy's Drop, now regularly performs on some of the world's biggest stages, but when he was growing up in Christchurch, Pacific Underground helped propel him on a musical path.

'Youth Cultural Development, YCD, that's where it all started for me,' he says. 'It was an old office block in the inner city, a former bank, that had been gutted. The back was half kitchen, half basketball court. It was like a warehouse. Pacific Underground had an office in there, they ran school holiday programmes.'

At 16, Tamaira says he was 'living on friend's couches' in Christchurch and 'drinking under bridges'.

He did a music course run by his dad, Joe Tamaira.

'It was me and three other dudes. We put together a little boy band and dad helped us write songs and got us ready for our first gig. We recorded a little demo tape and did a show in Lyttelton,' says Tamaira. 'We were called Synfonie… with an 'f'.'

Tamaira and his friends regularly started hanging out at the YCD rooms, playing basketball.

'Pacific Underground had all their instruments there… there was a piano. Chris Searle had a drumkit set up inside a safe because it was an old bank. I have a lot of happy memories,' says Tamaira.

'It was a good opportunity to learn about writing music, bringing it to people who knew what they were doing and hearing the transformation of my ideas, that's where I got a real burst for that whole process.'

After a holiday programme led by Kightley, Tamaira travelled around New Zealand acting with theatre production Romeo and Tulsi.

'It was the first time I'd travelled outside of Christchurch; we went right to the top of the country. It really opened my eyes.'

On that tour, Tamaira connected with people in Wellington.

'Malo Luafutu [Scribe] and his cousin, Ladi6, came through after me,' he says. 'Malo and I did one or two showcases together. I remember us performing Time Keeps on Slipping together…

'Anton Carter,aka MC Antsman, and Hamish Clark, aka Hame, who later formed Breaks Co-Op with Zane Lowe, did a radio show in Christchurch on RDU called Beats N Pieces…They used to have a freestyle session at the end of their show. Beats N Pieces and that whole crew, those MCs, and Scribe started having jams at Pacific Underground offices and then they merged those two things.'

Under the banner P.U.M.P. (Pacific Underground Music Productions) the collective's debut album, Landmark, was released in 1999. It featured performances from Beats N Pieces - including Scribe's recording debut - alongside the Naked Samoans and others.

Pacific Underground's second album, Island Summer, in 2010, was launched with a party at the Ngā Hau e Whā National Marae in Aranui. In 2011 it received multiple nominations at the Pacific Music Awards.

When she was 16, having started out as a breakdancer, Karoline Tamati, aka Ladi6, returned to Christchurch from Africa in the mid-1990s. While at Pacific Underground, she formed Sheelahroc with her cousin, Tyra Hammond (Opensouls) and Dallas' sister, Sarah Tamaira, aka Voodoo Child.

Sheelahroc's single If I Gave U Th' Mic was a hit which was also hugely empowering for women in hip-hop in New Zealand.

Ladi6 has been filming Celebrity Treasure Island this month. When she released 98 To Now in 2010, her first rap song since her Sheelahroc days, she said it was her answer to people who criticised her rapping abilities.

'I wanted to put my foot down and say 'I am a rapper, I can do it well and I've been bloody well doing it since 1998'.'

The Pacific Underground connections still run deep.

After Sheelahroc, Ladi6 went on to form Verse Two with Brent Park - known as Parks, Julien Dyne, Mark Vanilau and others. Their single Gold featured Scribe, and was produced by Mu of Fat Freddy's Drop.

Pacific Underground has written and toured a number of plays, including Fresh Off the Boat, Dawn Raids and Romeo and Tulsi as well as works by Kightley into theatres and schools both in New Zealand and overseas.

Arts collective Pacific Underground, with Pos Mavaega pictured centre, started in Christchurch in 1993 and helped launch the careers of everyone from Oscar Kightley to Ladi6, Scribe and Dallas Tamaira (Fat Freddy's Drop).

'My first experience was when their plays and breakdancing workshops came through our school, Linwood High,' says Park. 'I was really into breakdancing and that had an impact on me. But I was also a fan of the music. Pos asked if I would be interested in joining the group to play in the band and do theatre stuff. I was 17. It was a huge deal for me. Pos also loaned me key records that I grew to love. I was also not a Pacific Islander, I was really honoured to be a part of something like that.'

Mark TK, of Electric Wire Hustle fame, says Pacific Underground was 'incredibly progressive'.

'Having a collective of theatre-makers, artists and musicians was quite big thinking for the time and especially for Pacific and Māori community to say they wanted to be an arts collective under a banner,' he says. 'They have always been inspirational to me.'

Richie Mills, aka DJ Pause, recalls Dallas Tamaira being a 'pretty good' drummer.

'I remember one time he and Scribe were in the safe at YCD on the drums,' says Mills. 'I was trying to learn how to DJ then I saw Oscar Kightley in town when I was out with my mum. It was the school holidays and he knew I was pretty much hanging out doing naughty s….

'Oscar knew that and told me about the holiday programme at Pacific Underground and I wanted to go but I wasn't a Pacific Islander. He said, 'where do you live?' I said 'Christchurch'. He said, 'yeah, South Island, it's an island in the Pacific Ocean, you're a Pacific Islander'. So I said 'OK'.'

A member of the collective since it began, Chris Searle recalls his days in the former bank's safe on a drumkit with a mixture of fondness and horror.

'I had students in the bank vault on drums,' he says. 'There wasn't a lot of air in there so you couldn't be in the safe for too long.'

With a connection to Pacific Underground comes 'lifelong associations' he says.

The collective spans the nation and further afield, from actors to musicians, including the likes of Victor Rodger, Tuari Dawson, Shane Asi, Flo Lafai, Barbara Carpenter, Vic Tamati, Joy Veale, Hemi Lesatele, Ra Dallas, Ave Sua, Dru Sione, Iona Ulula and many more.

'It's a family atmosphere,' says Searle. 'Once you're a part of the family, you're always a part of it.'

Tanya Muagututi'a and Posenai Mavaega of Pacific Underground. The arts collective is celebrating 25 years with a finale show, Meet Me at the Dog House, at the Christchurch Arts Festival.

Preparing to present Meet Me at the Dog House has meant trawling archives and 'mashing up' the collective's 25 years of influences.

The show at the Christchurch Town Hall on Saturday night is billed as the 'jam of all jams' and aims to celebrate their 'ground-breaking legacy of giving Pacific communities a voice through music, drama and the arts'.

Led by Mavaega alongside core members Muagututi'a and Searle, those performing include Steve Apirana, Joe Tamaira, Dallas Tamaira, Sarah Tamaira (Voodoo Child), Park, Karoline Tamati (Ladi6), Mara TK, Mark Vanilau and Richie Mills (DJ Pause).

It is a heartfelt tribute to the underground sound that has nurtured so many of Aotearoa's brightest stars.

Dallas Tamaira will perform some of his solo material for the first time.

'I thought I'd play some of my original songs. I have a few songs that I have been slowly writing over quite a long time and one new one I've just written with Reno [Devin Abrams], Pacific Heights… I'm quite excited about playing these songs out for the first time. Mark Vanilau will be playing keys.'

For Searle, Muagututi'a and Mavaega, who have watched their young pupils become musical stars and household names, Saturday night's show is special.

'When you think about it in those terms, people coming in who are now well known, you think 'oh gosh, we've had a hand in that', that's quite fulfilling,' says Searle.

'Steve Apirana and Joe Tamaira, they have been a big influence on me, they are the era of my parents and are well respected musicians and they're coming over from Australia for this.'

Tamaira recalls being on tour in Australia with Fat Freddy's Drop and discovering Mavaega working backstage.

'He was working on sound, he has a great ear. Pos is such a grounding personality and is incredibly humble,' says Tamaira. 'He is one of my musical role models.'

Steve Apirana led 70s band Butler, one of the few all Māori bands of the era.

He shared stages with the likes of Black Sabbath, Daddy Cool, Osibisa and Fairport Convention.

Apirana was a street kid in Christchurch. Butler formed when he and a few other 'street kids' picked up instruments at a Christian drop-in centre in the city.

'The City Mission had a drop-in centre and me and a whole bunch of street kids put a band together and all of a sudden we were playing university gigs,' recalls Apirana.

Named after a friend who was killed in a car crash, Butler released one album in 1973 and had a devoted following at its Orientation gigs at the University of Canterbury. The band split in 1976.

'Then I got involved in playing in prisons and churches with Joe Tamaira… we used to have huge jam sessions in the prisons. We'd get in on the pretext of doing concerts but some of the best musicians in town were inside.'

In recent years he's been based in Australia, releasing solo material and performing with wife Ainsley with a focus on gospel music.

'Pacific Underground was geared towards moving people's talents towards music. My son was involved,' he says. 'They put the word out to Polynesian musicians to help out with a bit of tutoring. Although we didn't have the knowledge of the academic side, we had experienced it so we were able to share that and we got some of them going. It was a very relaxed way of doing it.'

Playwright Rodger, new to the board of the Christchurch Arts Festival, says he owes a lot to the collective.

'Profoundly, while I was there Simon Small encouraged me to write my first post to qualify for a big playwright workshop. I wrote the first draft of Sons in two weeks, it got accepted and that was my start as a playwright.'

Pacific Underground is, he says, perhaps best known outside its hometown.

'It has often been remarked how ironic it is that PU emerged in Christchurch of all places. It wasn't the first Pacific theatre group in New Zealand but arguably the one that has had the most profound impact.'

Fresh Off the Boat is Pacific Underground's flagship theatre production. In its 25-year history it is highly regarded. It has been performed in our schools and overseas.

In 25 years it has never before been performed at the Court Theatre.

Directed by Muagututi'a and featuring a new cast, Fresh Off the Boat is at the Court Theatre from October 19.

Fittingly, the next generation of Pacific Underground will be on stage as the talented cast includes Muagututi'a and Mavaega's daughters, Talia-Rae and Josephine.

Emerging Samoan actors Jake Arona, Talia-Rae Mavaega and Arona Peseta have their own company, Y NOT Theatre Collective, and Arona plays the part which helped launch Kightley's career.

'I literally grew up in the theatre with Pacific Underground,' says Talia-Rae Mavaega, 23.

'Some of my earliest memories as a child were of being backstage and watching mum and dad run a show.'

When Joe Tamaira moved to Christchurch in 1970, on his arrival in the city he literally found his family at The Dog House.

'I got to Christchurch from Wellington with my mate,' he says on the phone from Brisbane. 'I knew that my brothers were living there but I didn't have a clue where they actually lived.'

Tamaira tapped the 'first Māori' he saw on the shoulder.

'I told him my brothers' names and asked if he knew them. He said 'nah bro, but go to the Square and someone will know'.'

He stopped at The Dog House to buy an American hot dog.

'Well, I walked in there and the woman working behind the counter she got really excited and said 'is it really you?',' recalls Joe Tamaira.

'She thought I was this good-looking Māori singer called Tap Heperi who all the girls were after. I didn't tell her any different.'

Shortly afterwards he looked up in surprise: 'My brothers had just walked in.'

Now based in Australia, he's working on releasing new solo material. At the Pacific Underground show he'll share a stage with his children, Dallas and Sarah.

'I think that my children have eclipsed me now,' he says. 'I'm really looking forward to coming back to the city where I launched my music career 34 years ago and playing at the Christchurch Town Hall as well.'

The Dog House was the scene of a stabbing and many late-night scuffles. It, and other fast food outlets, were also caught up in a curious saga involving ZAP (Zenith Applied Philosophy) and employee wages.

The Dog House closed down in 1997.

Now, in its corner of Cathedral Square, the memories linger.

LIke his father, when Dallas Tamaira frequented The Dog House, he liked to order an American hot dog.

'I did think their game machines were the best in Christchurch,' he says. 'I'd play Streetfighter… there's something about the sound of a video parlour. The Dog House was always real draughty. I'd hang out the front.

'That place was a pretty buzzy place at night, man.'

Pacific Underground presents Meet Me at the Dog House featuring Dallas, Joe and Sarah Tamaira, Ladi6, Steve Apirana, and other members of Pacific Underground, at the James Hay Theatre, Saturday, August 3. See https://artsfestival.co.nz/events/meet-me-at-the-doghouse for ticket details.