TAMAHANA

One day, someone wrote a story to the Reader's Digest magazine. It was a story set on some Polynesian Island, like Tahiti. It tells of a girl who was of no beauty. Only wit, courage and loyalty.

Everyone only saw an ugly girl, until a prince came to her island. He offered her drunk & ungrateful father, eight cows for her hand in marriage. He saw beauty within her. To offer one cow was the sum on of kingly price, yet he offered seven cows for a common lady.

As she grew to love the prince, she also grew to love herself. And as she loved more, so did her beauty grow.

Next, a movie producer was inspired by the story, that he brought the story to life. He called it, The Legend of Johnny Lingo. It centres on the lives of two child misfits on a Polynesian Island. Tama, the orphan boy who was swept into the island by a fierce storm, and was moved from home to home after branded as "bad luck" and "ill-fated". Then, there was Mahana, the ugly girl who can only do wrong in her father's eyes. She convinces her drunken father to take in Tama, to help with the chores.

Tama runs away by sailing to other islands, before promising Mahana that he will return someday to marry her. He says, "Look for me on the horizon, each day when the sun touches the seas". They part in their childhood, with Mahana presenting him an arm-band, which she had woven.

Lost in the storm, Tama ends on a more beautiful and bountiful island, governed by the generous Johnny Lingo. Tama steals from Johnny Lingo but is caught. As punishment, he has to serve on Johnny Lingo's island for 8 years. As the years past, Johnny teaches Tama everything from farming to governing, to sailing, navigating, and negotiating. Tama becomes the son and heir to Johnny Lingo's estates and legacy, when the elder dies. As heir, Tama becomes the next Johnny Lingo, by wealth and name.

He yearns to keep his promise to Mahana, whom he misses as the 8 years went by. Mahana, on the other hand, does not receive any respect from the young men and women. She keeps her wits and sharp tongue to fight for herself. But she acknowledges her ugliness and adheres to her father's critism.

When the villagers hear of a prince who is coming to seek a bride from their daughters, everyone is busy preparing a grand welcome. Little do they know that it is Tama, whom they rejected as a child. Tama is only interested to see Mahana, but she rejects every invitation to be brought to the great, proud and rich prince, thinking that he is cocky. She shuns at the idea of being shown off as the ugliest girl in the island.

What Tama learns later, is that Mahana goes to the cliffs everyday to scan the horizons, at sunrise and sunset. "Look for me on the horizon, each day when the sun touches the seas", he remembers saying to her. He realizes that Mahana is waiting for Tama to return, and not the famous Johnny Lingo.

Tama finally has a moment to talk to Mahana. She finally expresses her feelings and sorrows, and the reason of rejecting any marriage proposals. "Do you know," she says, "how much it hurts to wait? To have your hopes rise with each dawn, and crushed with each setting of the sun?!"

At last, Tama cannot hide his true identity any longer. In front of the entire Village and the Council of Elders, he announces that he, Johhny Lingo will take Mahana for a wife, and offers eight cows as dowry. "Why the eight cows?" she asks. He replies, "It's one for every year". She is stunned and confused. He then shows the arm-band that she had woven as a little girl. She recognizes it immediately, and sees Tama for the first time.

She slaps him sharply on the cheek, "THAT was for the eight years!" and then, goes into the arms of her beloved. Her Tama, who has returned and stayed true to his word.

What followed from the movie, was a beautiful song written by Te Vaka.