On the Scene with Roger Ewens

Roger Ewens was a 14-year-old Australian living in New Zealand when he first saw a haka, the traditional Maori dance that can be a challenge to battle or a form of greeting. Ewens was awestruck and wanted to learn more. It was the start of a lifetime commitment to the studying island cultures across the Pacific.

Ewens came to Hawaii to attend Brigham Young University-Hawaii where he earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, theater and travel management in 1986, then returned to Australia for graduate work in educational theater, Polynesian and Aboriginal studies. He was passing through Hawaii in 1991 when he was asked to stay long enough to design some costumes for a show at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Other design jobs followed — costumes for one show and then another, uniforms for PCC waitstaff and other service personnel. Ewens never left.

Ewens, 60, recently worked with a team of technicians and cultural designers in creating the costumes and accessories for “Huki,” PCC’s new afternoon canoe celebration show that opened Aug. 18 in Laie.

JOHN BERGER: What was the most challenging aspect of designing for “Huki?”

ROGER EWENS: One is that you can’t use things like (real) tapa (bark) cloth because they start to wear out very quickly, so we have to find materials that look like them. Another is color. The script called for blue-themed costumes for the finale with the blue representing the ocean that connects us, but blue is not a traditional color (for clothing in Polynesia) so that required a lot of back and forth with the cultural advisers.

JB: How do you approach those challenges?

RE: I’m very, very aware that you need to be respectful to the culture and not just dive in — no way! When you create a design you have to be careful what you put on there, so I’d never touch a design just doing it myself. So for each of the cultures in “Huki” — Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, Maori and Tahiti — I’ve worked with cultural advisers to make sure that the costumes were culturally correct.

JB: What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?

RE: What’s been rewarding for me — particularly with “Huki” — is to be trusted with the knowledge that they share with me and whatever they want to teach me. I find that extremely rewarding. Culture is alive, it’s not dead. Keep it alive. I want to pull it forward so that it continues. Hopefully I’ve done that with “Huki.”

JB: What would you like people to get out of “Huki” beside entertainment?

RE: The feeling that we’re all one family.

JB: What are the biggest and the smallest costumes or uniforms you’ve designed at PCC?

RE: The biggest was probably a 4X. The smallest was a size 00 (double zero) skirt that was still too big and I had to take in.

JB: What do you do to relax or get away from work?

RE: I’m an arts person. I love movies, I love music. I like going to shows — and just relaxing. And I go to Merrie Monarch whenever I can.

JB: What was it about watching that haka almost 50 years that drew you in to what has become your life’s work?

RE: I don’t know. I didn’t know anything about (Maori culture) at the time but I felt something I’d never felt before.