To Tatau Waka: In Search of Maori Music

201 Pages·2004·7.94 MB·English

by  Mervyn McLean

TÖ TÄTAU WAKA
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TÖ TÄTAU WAKA
IN SEARCH OF MAORI MUSIC (1958–1979)
Mervyn McLean
AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY PRESS
First published 2004
Auckland University Press
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
New Zealand
www.auckland.ac.nz/aup
© Mervyn McLean, 2004
ISBN 1 86940 306 1
Publication is kindly assisted by the Lilburn Trust and
National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
McLean, Mervyn.
Tö tätau waka : in search of Mäori music, 1958-1979 / by Mervyn McLean.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-86940-306-1
1. McLean, Mervyn. 1. Maori (New Zealand people)—Music.
3. Songs, Maori. 4. Ethnomusicology—New Zealand.
781.629944200992—dc 21
This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research,
criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by
any process without prior permission of the publisher.
Front cover photographs: (Main picture) Recording Ira Mänihera, 1974. Peter Crowe.
(Insets, left to right) Label of Nga Moteatea Song 23, sung by a Ngäti Porou group;
A Hillman 80 car; the author playing a fine whale-tooth nguru from the
Auckland Museum in 1970; Nini Rangimawhiti Naera
Cover design: Christine Hansen
Printed by Printlink Ltd, Wellington
This book is dedicated
to all the people whose names appear in it
and all of the others
who helped in so many ways
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CONTENTS
Getting started 1
Rotorua (May–July 1958) 13
Between times (1958–1962) 32
Getting on, and getting about 42
First 1962–64 field trip (August–October 1962) 55
Second 1962–64 field trip (February–April 1963 ) 71
Third 1962–64 field trip (August–December 1963) 91
Final 1962–64 field trip (February–May 1964) 107
PhD thesis 129
Overseas again (1965–68) 134
The later years (1969–79) 143
An appeal to Maori readers 173
Bibliography 174
Acknowledgements 177
Photo credits 178
Glossary of song types 180
Index of place names 181
Map of Tribal Distribution 183
Index of personal names 184
CD contents 188
Location of Recordings
GETTING STARTED
IN 1934, WHEN I WAS 4 YEARS OLD, my parents bought a portable
HMV gramophone, along with a stack of 10-inch, 78 rpm records of popular
songs of the 1920s and earlier such as ‘Shine on harvest moon’, ‘There oughta
be a moonlight saving time’, and ‘Tiptoe thru the tulips’. I used to play these
for hours, conscientiously changing the needle every two sides, and throwing
the used ones down the sound box, where hundreds of them accumulated,
to re-emerge many years later when the machine was overhauled for sale.
Among the records were a number of early Parlophone and Columbia
recordings of the Rotorua Maori Choir, with soloists such as Ana Hato and
Deane Waretini, singing popular Maori songs of the day. They were special
favourites of mine, and I played them over and over, astonishing my parents
one day when they found me singing along, perfectly in tune they later told
me, ‘words and all’. My ability with the words can be taken with a grain of
salt, as my parents did not speak Maori, but these songs did acquaint me with
the sound of the Maori language and I suppose got it into
my head. Nothing came of it, however, for a long time.
It was not until my university days, more than 20 years
later, that my interest in Maori music was to be rekindled,
and I began what proved to be a life’s work.
The songs recorded in the 1920s by Hato and Waretini
have become almost legendary. Most New Zealanders are
familiar with at least some of them, such as ‘Pökarekare ana’
and ‘Pö atarau’ (Now is the Hour), or the ‘good night
kiwi song’ from the days when TV closed down at
An HMV portable gramophone similar to the one that kept
me amused in 1934. The little swivel container in the
front right corner was used for storing needles
1