Kakai Tokelau: Songs and stories of Tokelau , 1968 - 1976

This series contains Tokelauan folk tales collected in the field by Huntsman between 1967 and 1976. In Tokelauan, 'kakai' are fictional stories and 'tala' are stories that recount historical events.

Huntsman began recording kakai in late 1967 with the tale of Te Kea The Turtle told to entertain two turtles who had been captured offshore in Nukunonu. The Nukunonu story tellers were keen to have their stories recorded and the retired catechist, Peato Perez, and senior schoolteacher, Pio Tuia, transcribed many of the recordings for Huntsman. By September 1968, a considerable corpus of tales had been recorded and transcribed. From late 1969 to 1976 many more kakai were recorded, and most were transcribed by Toloa Poasa, a Fakaofo elder and resident in Auckland. Huntsman notes that although these transcriptions capture the story they do not always record the exact words of the original teller.

Initially Huntsman did rough translations of the tales herself, sometimes consulting the tellers for clarification. She produced two working papers (Tokelau text/English translation) as teaching materials and then sent copies of the Tokelau texts to Tokelau. Some tales were later translated by more competent translators for other publications.

In 2005, Nigel Champion, manager of the University of Auckland's Archive of Maori and Pacific Music, and Keli Kalolo, then Tokelau Director of Education, transferred the taped recordings to 16 CDs. Kalolo selected a number of the recordings for reproduction and sale through the Education Department.