Like so much of the drumming we’ve experienced in our whirlwind world tour of global rhythms, percussion from Oceania (a term most narrowly used to refer to Australia, though more expansively to describe the whole region, such as Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia) and from other Pacific Islands, like Hawaii, originated as a way to tell a tale. Pacific rhythms and dances are often a direct form of cultural and spiritual communication. Drummers "speak" with rhythm, piecing together beats into patterns analogous to sentences, arranging those into longer pieces that form the background rhythms for dancers who further the storytelling with narrative motion.

The Tahitian percussion vocabulary, as demonstrated on a Tahitian drum known as the to'ere in the videos linked through this page, has multiple flexible phrases, each of which has a distinct name: Napoko, Toma, second Toma, Pahae, second Pahae, Paea, Puara-Ta, Takoto, Mati, Bora Bora and more. Drum along and enjoy!