Sometimes when I find a band that performs in an uncommon language, I listen to all their songs to pick a favorite for the playlist. But every now and then every song I listen to by that artist is my favorite, until I just have a new favorite artist.
Kaumaakonga absolutely falls into the latter category. While Taoba is the song I've added to the playlist, I really enjoyed every single song on their album.
Kaumaakonga is a band from the Solomon Islands, specifically from the islands of Mungava and Mungiki (often called Rennell and Bellona in English). If you combine the last 3 letters of each island you get Avaiki, the name of the language spoken on the two islands.
While the majority of the Solomon Islands is culturally and geographically Melanesian, Avaiki is a Polynesian language. It is considered a "Polynesian outlier," as it's outside the bounds of what is geographically considered Polynesia.
I was torn about adding Taoba to the playlist, and not just because I loved all Kaumaakonga's songs. Taoba is in archaic Avaiki, and is so old that the meaning has been lost. The song has been passed down for 25+ generations; and is so old that the words can no longer be recognized by modern Avaiki speakers. On one hand, I prefer to add songs that are intelligible to folks who speak that language. On the other hand, I think that it's amazing when songs are passed down even after the meaning is lost. There's just something really special about preserving a piece of your culture and history, even when you don't understand the words.
