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Biography: Muldoon, Robert David

Dancing the siva

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Dancing the siva

On 18 March 1981 Muldoon was invested with the Samoan title of matai in a formal ceremony at the Beehive. Afterwards he and his wife Thea Muldoon joined in a traditional dance, the siva. Here, he dances with the Siumu village high chief's daughter, to a traditional song with updated words which described him as a 'rose blossom'.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1981/1121/31

Photograph by John Nicholson

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

How to cite this page

Barry Gustafson. 'Muldoon, Robert David', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 2010. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/21287/dancing-the-siva (accessed 14 June 2026).