Translations
   The first is an expressive and flowing English translation.
   The second is word-for-word, to help beginners in Te Reo learn new Maori words.

1. Kaha
    All beginners in Te Reo know "Kia Kaha! Be Strong!" But it has nutty origins.

    In old mid-Pacific Polynesian dialects, kaha (ka'a, kafa, 'aha) was a cord, fishing-line or rope plaited from the fibre of a coconut husk. This was used instead of nails to join timbers, when building  boats and houses. It was also used for making fishing nets and bird traps. Then kaha was used metaphorically for a loud strong voice (Samoa), a swift strong runner (Tahiti), and for a high priest's power of life and death (Marquesas)

    In Aotearoa, flax (hara-keke, pandanus-creaky) was used to make cords, lines, traps, ropes and nets, but the kaha name was retained for these items. Kaha also came to be used as an iwi's boundary line, the line of a ridge, a line of soldiers, a navel cord and a person's line of ancestors: it was also used to describe strength of muscle or strength of spirit: enthusiastic, keen, determined, passionate.


2. Manene
    In old mid-Pacific Polynesian dialects this refers to soft tender skin, especially under the feet, and came to describe a person who walks with tender feet, slow, uncertain, nervous. Outsiders who didn't know local customs walked in this manner, so manene came to describe a wanderer, a new chum, an immigrant.

    If you have to keep asking again and again, like an outsider with no privileges, you are mānene.

    The old meaning of delicate skin is retained in maunene, a very sensitive part of the genitals.


3. ūkaipō  
     ū - kai - pō, breast - food - at night, your mother's breast, where got your first food => the place where you ate your first meals => where you remember toddling after your big cousins to help them collect and cook the kaimoana and kumara and you joined in the song and laughter and stories and dancing, where the big people kept you safe and warm and loved. Good memories. Home.

    This was a lovely new word for me. It reminded me of our big family meals at Mangamahu just after World War II; home-killed roast hogget smothered in gravy, home-grown roast potatoes, fresh picked peas and carrots, steamed pudding and stewed peaches with hot custard. Home.

4. Te Whakatōhea  
    This iwi are the traditional owners of the land around Opotiki, beside the Ohiwa Harbour in the eastern Bay of Plenty. They are descended from Tautūrangi who arrived from the central Pacific on the Nukutere, and from Muriwai who arrived later on the Mata-atua. MORE

    Members of other iwi sometimes borrow this song and insert their own iwi's name here.

Ruia Ruia
    Spreading out, then becoming one again...
    A godwit, one single bird, has landed on the sand bank. 
    Now we have all landed here. 

He Kakano Ahau
   I am a seed, born of greatness
   Descended from a line of chiefs,
   Wherever I may roam
   I will hold fast to my traditions...

Ka Pioioi
    You've come back home to see your people.
    There is gesturing and laughing with joy at your return...

Thompson's Bus
   They're yarning, smoking roll-your-owns
   while waiting in the dusk
   for the bread and news and friendship that
   we bring in Thompson's bus...