In 1925, Apirana Ngata introduced dairy farming to the Ngati Porou people. This was very popular. Then to ensure the farm mortagages were paid, he had the East Coast hotels closed. This was not popular!
| Tera
te mahi pai rawa E ki ia ana mai, He mahi ra e put ai Nga moni nuinui noa! E whanga ra, e tama ma, Ki nga pei marama - Kua riro ke I nga nama, Aue nga wawata! E rere ra te kirimi, Ki rota ki nga Kena nei! Kia tika hawerewere Kei rere parorirori, Kia rite ai nga nama! E ki ia ana mai, Kei Taranaki ra ano, Na Maui Pomare! Ko nga kau ra i rere ai Te Nati ki te hao! He rau mahau, he rau maku, Ka ea nga wawata! Tera te pata rongo nui He Nati te ingoa Te wahi ra, i mahia ai Ko Ruatoria! Hara-mai ra Te Pirimia Mahau te kawanga E pono ai te mahi nei He mahi kai ano. |
There's
some really good work We've been told about, Work that will make us Lots and lots of money! Just wait, you fellows, For your monthly pay - But our debts have taken it, So much for our dreams! Flow on, cream, Into those cans! Go straight in, Don't go crooked, So our debts can be paid! We've been told about, Over in Taranaki. They belong to Maui Pomare! They're the cows the Nati Rushed to get hold of! A hundred for you, a hundred for me, And our dreams will be realized! There's some famous butter, "Nati" is its name. The place where they make it Is Ruatoria! Welcome, Prime Minister, You are to perfoirn The opening ceremony For this food-producing work. |
Maori dairy farms
 Ngata was inspired by Taranaki dairy farms like this one. |
Ngata made dairying a particular objective of this work. Using government mortgages, Ngata had 660 Jersey heifers and calves and 36 pedigree bulls brought from Taranaki in late 1924.
In 1925 the Ngati Porou Co-operative Dairy Company was founded with a factory at Ruatoria. Its 58 suppliers producing 61 tons of butter in its first season. By 1937 there were 377 suppliers producing 744 tons of butter. The butter was branded 'Nati.'
The Cream Song was written by Apirana Ngata himself when the Prime Minister, Gordon Coates, visited the dairy factory in 1926. Coates was impressed. He advanced additional state funds and rewarded Ngata with a knighthood in the 1927 Honours list.
Paying the
mortagage
This had the enthusiastic support of Ngati Porou women, but not of all the men. Clearing the land, plowing, fencing, milking and separating cream, all by hand, was back-breaking and lonely work. A sociable evening with friends in a warm hotel bar was a great help in keeping up the farmers' morale.
So Ngata was opposed in his prohibition, particularly by Tamati Kaiwai, who attacked him on the marae, and later, according to Amiria Manutahi Stirling, was the one who composed this aggressive haka, Poropeihana.
At that time, the words used would have degraded Ngata's mana, so Ngata sometimes led this haka himself to dampen the personal sting.
| Ee...Ko
Apirana Ngata ra te tangata Takarure mai ra i nga ture i roto o Poneke! Horohia mai ō ture ki ahau Horohia mai ō ture ki ahau Tu ana te Minita ki waenganui! Tu ana te Minita ki waenganui! Õ ture patua ki runga ki te tekoteko 1 o te Whare e tu mai na Mahi hamupaka koia raka! Ture kaunihera koia raka! Poropeihana koia raka! Ka minamina au ki te waipiro ka hokona i te pō! Purari paka! Kaura mokai e! Homai o ture kia wetewete! Kia wetewete! |
Ee...Apirana
Ngata, you're the man making changes to the laws in Wellington! Spread out your laws for me! Let's have a look at those documents! The Prime Minister was standing in our midst! X2 Your destructive laws are over-riding the traditional customs of the community right here. A load of humbug is what we have! Council by-laws are what we have! Prohibition is what we have! I want to be able to go to the pub To buy a drink at night! You bloody bugger! Lowlife coward! Give us your laws so we can analyze them! ....so we can sort all this out! |
1
Te tekoteko o te Whare.
A wharenui is the symbol of the stable unified community,
and
its tekoteko figurehead symbolizes the customary laws which
keep the community stable.
A haka from
an earlier prohibition?
In 1911, Ngata had persuaded the Horouta Maori Council to hold a poll on the prohibition of the sale of alcohol, and by a narrow margin an experimental three-year dry period began. But when the period ended in 1914 the Government refused to finance another poll. So the East Coast remained "dry" until 1922 when a special law made a second poll possible, and hotel licenses were restored. (as told to historian Graeme Butterworth by Arnold Reedy)
I have found two versions of this haka, and one does not have these lines
Tu ana te Minita ki waenganui!
O ture patua ki runga ki te tekoteko
o te Whare e tu mai na
So these may have been added by Tamati Kaiwai in 1927.
Whatever the origins of this haka, it reveals much about the history of alcohol and Maori, and has also become one of the handful of important historical haka, and it is still often performed. It is a precious taonga of Maori culture.
Tino Rangatiratanga?
"Ruaumoko and Poropeihana...are two famous Ngati Porou compositions...automatically identified by iwi Maori as haka of Ngati Porou.
Poropeihana ... was composed about the introduction of a parliamentary bill on the prohibition of alcohol ... Such protestation by the people was a sign that they had grown tired of colonial laws and an expression of continuing their quest for tino rangatiratanga (self determination) in relation to Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi) and their rights as Indigenous people of the land."
Those who use Popopeihana as a symbol of tino rangatiratanga overlook two details:
1. the sale of alcohol to East Coast Maori was how colonists gained control of their land in the first instance
2. Ngati Porou women had asked their leader to use his parliamentary powers to stop the further sale of alcohol there, so they could save money to buy their land back.
Maybe it was it those prohibition-minded Ngati Porou women who were the ones seeking tino rangatiratanga?
Sources
Nga Ture - Poropeihana, Te Hiringa i te Mahara, 2004,
Tania M. Ka'ai - Te Kauae Maro (Jawbone) o Muri-ranga-whenua : Globalising local Indigenous culture...
Kiwi songs - Maori Songs - Home
This web page was prepared in June 2005, published on the web Jan 2006