The meʻe tuʻu paki resembles a kind of war dance; albeit, it is done with little symbolic paddles as opposed to arms.
The dress for this dance invariably is a large sheet of ngatu wrapped around the body from chest to ankles.
It is usually the dance master who operates a little slit drum (lali) to keep the beat, while the dancers themselves sing the song, possibly with assistance of others.
There are speculations that the meʻetuʻupaki was composed somewhere in the 12th to 16th century by an internationally oriented poet from the island of ʻUvea which honours the Tuʻi Tonga empire.
Unfortunately, some of the parts to the story are still guarded as secrets, and we can only speculate on the true history from the limited resources we have from Tongan, Futunan, and 'Uvean sources.