NZ FOLK SONG * Po! Po!

NEW ZEALAND MOTEATEA * ORIORI	Po! Po! Popo, Popo, Poopoo Enoka Te Pakaru

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This famous oriori from the East Coast is of pre-European origin.

The kumara or sweet potato was a treasured food, an essential item at feasts and on other important occasions. Elaborate ritual usages were observed during its cultivation, and various myths explained its origin and nature.

This oriori introduces a child to a dozen myths and historical stories that he will later learn in full.

It is sung here by Turau Te Tomo (1896-1965) and Marata Te Tomo (1900-1982), who recorded it in 1962.

Po! Po ! E tangi ana Tama ki te kai mana! Waiho me tiki ake ki te Pou-a-hao-kai,² Hei a mai te pakake ki uta ra Hei wai-u³ mo Tama! Kia mauria mai e to tipuna, e Uenuku! Whakarongo! Ko te kumara ko Pari-nui-te-ra. Ka hikimata te tapuae o Tangaroa, Ka whaimata te tapuae o Tangaroa. Tangaroa! Ka haruru!	Baby! Potiki!¹ The boy is crying for food! Until it is fetched by Pouhaokai drive the minke whale ashore as mother's food to make milk³ for the boy! Let it be brought by your ancestor, Uenuku! Listen! The kumara is from the Great Cliffs of the Sun⁴ The trail of Tangaroa⁵ moves over the surface the track of Tangaroa follows the surface Tangaroa! The steps resound!
This is an oriori, to soothe a baby. He is first introduced to a magical bird that was a guardian of the people, and told of an ancestor's journey on that bird (or on a high-speed voyaging waka) across the oceans to obtain the seed kumara.

Ka noho Uru, ka noho i a Ngangana; Puta mai ki waho ra ko Te Aotu, ko Te Aohore, ko Hine-tua-hoanga, Te Whatu o Poutini ei!	Uru lived with Ngangana,⁶ and there were born Te Ao-tu, Te Ao-hore, Maiden-of-sandstone, and the fish-like Stone of Poutini⁷, ei!
Potiki is now introduced to the pounamu rock and the sandstone maiden (sandstone was used to shape pounamu). Another story tells of how Ngahue fled Hawaiki with his pet fish called Poutini, escaping to the West Coast where Ngahue found a safe place in the Arahura River for Poutini to live in peace.

Kei te kukunetanga mai o Hawaiki Ko te ahua ia Ko Maui-wharekino ka noho i a Pani, Ka kawea ki te wai o Monariki Ma Onehunga, ma Onerere, Ma te piere, ma te matata Te pia tangi wharau, ka hoake Ki runga ra, te Pipi-wharauroa, Na Whena koe, e Waho e! Tuatahi, e Waho e!	The primeval formation began in Hawaiki, with the pregnancy when Maui-whare-kino took Pani⁸ to wife she who was taken to the waters of Monariki for the rites of Smoothing-sand, for the Flying-sand, for the Opening-fissure, for the Gaping-fissure, the first whimper from the shelter thus giving birth to Cuckoo-stripe-greenstone.⁹ You are of Whena, O Waho! Thus the first part, O Waho!
Uenuku gave Maui-whare-kino the kumara, and when Maui returned to his wife she became pregnant with the kumara. When food supplies were low, she would take herself to the waters of Mona-ariki and give birth to kumara, fill her kete and return to the pa. When the people of the village learned her secret, they shared in the responsibility of looking after the kumara.

Tuarua, ka topea i reira
Ko te Whatanui, ko te Whataroa,
ko te ti haere,
Na Kohuru, na Paeaki,
Na Turiwhatu, na Rakaiora.
Ko Waiho anake te tangata i rere noa
I te ahi rura a Rongomaracroa,
Ko te kakahu no Tu, ko te Rangikaupapa,
Ko te tatua i riro mai
I a Kanoa, i a Matuatonga.
Tenei te manawa ka puritia,
Tenei te manawa ka tawhia;
Kia haramai tona hokowhitu i te ara.

Of the second part is the felling there
of the timbers for the posts at the sacred place,¹⁰
and the perch of snares,
for your ancestors, Kohuru, Paeaki,
Turiwhatu, and Rakaiora.
Waiho was the only one who fled
from the scattered fires of Rongo-maraeroa.¹¹
The cloak of Tu¹² brings the time of annihilation.
The belt that was brought here
by Kanoa and Matuatonga.¹³
This is why men's hearts are apprehensive,
they are fearful,
that his band of warriors might appear on the road.

This second part of the oriori is introduces Potiki to the rituals around its cultivation and harvest in Aotearoa. When the kumara arrived in Gisborne an altar was established where planting rituals were carried out, with trees felled to make posts for the altar, and snares built to snare bad spirits. Ancestors are mentioned, including Rakeiora, a tohunga renowned for his knowledge of the kumara, and Matuatonga, either the ancestor who brought the kumara to Aotearoa, or the name of the body belt in which it was brought. Kumara has a role in both peace (Rongo) and in war (Tu).

Ka kia [e] Paikea Ruatapu i te tama meamea, Ka tahuri i Te Huripureiata, Ka whakakau Tama i a ia. Whakarere iho ana te kakau o te hoe: Ko Maninikura, ko Maniniaro! Ka tangi te kura, ka tangi wiwini! Ka tangi te kura, ka tangi wawana!	When Ruatapu was called a bastard by Uenuku¹⁴ He overturned the waka Te Huri-pureiata, And that boy recited a spell to make himself swim. He abandoned the paddle-handles¹⁵ Manini-kura and Manini-aro. The noble one cries, cries in fear! The noble one cries, cries in terror!
Ruatapu was insulted by Kahu-tia-te-rangi and caused his waka to upturn while he was fishing. So Kahutiaterangi called to Paikea the great whale, and rode on its back to Whangara. Manini-kura and Manini-aro are said to have been kumara gardening tools brought from Hawaiki. The last lines of this stanza were chanted by the paddlers aboard the Takitimu.

Ko Hakirirangi ka u kei uta; Te kowhai ka ngaora, ka ringitia te kete Ko Manawaru, ko Aaraiteuru, Ka kitea e te tini, e te mano!	It was kumara-carrier Hakirirangi¹⁶ who reached the shore in springtime when the kowhai was flowering, she emptied her kumara-planting basket At Manawaru and Araiteuru,¹⁷ near Gisborne To be seen by the myriads, by the thousands.
Hakirirangi was a woman aboard Horouta who brought the kumara to Turanga. She was an expert in the lore of the kumara and knew that it should be planted with the blossoming of the kowhai in Spring. Manawaru and Araiteuru were the names of Hakirirangi’s first kumara plantations.

Ko Makauri anake i mahue atu i waho i Toka-ahuru; Ko te peka i rere mai ki uta ra hei kura mo Mahaki. Ko Mangamoteo, ko Uetanguru, Ko te koiwi ko Rongorapua.	Only the tree Makauri:¹⁸ was left behind out at the reef Toka-ahuru, offshore from Gisborne, The branch of which was cast ashore as a treasure for Kuhungunu's grandson Mahaki. The waterways Mangamoteo¹⁹ and Uetanguru irrigate the crops of Rongo-ra-pua.
Pourangahua returned from Hawaiki with the kumara aboard a giant bird. When he was above the coast of Gisborne, he plucked some feathers from the bird and dropped them into the sea where they grew into a kahikatea tree named Makauri. Tokaahuru is the reef where Makauri grew. A branch of the tree broke off and washed ashore to became the forests that sustained M?haki.

Waiho me tiki ake
ki te kumara i a Rangi!
Ko Pekehawani ka noho i a Rehua²⁰
Ko Ruhiterangi ka tau kei raro:
Te ngahuru tikotiko-iere,
Ko Poututerangi!
Te matahi o te tau,
te putunga o te hinu, e tama!

And now we wait until there is brought
the kumara from the heavens.
The star Spica is taken as wife by the star Antares;
giving birth to Ninth-month, who comes to rest below.
Hence the bounteous harvest-time.
Oh High-in-the-Sky !
with the first fruits of the year,²¹
with the calabash overflowing with fat, my son!

Finally Potiki is introduced to harvest time and things that mark the end of the year – stars, bounteous harvests, the gathering and storing of food for winter.

Notes

Some internet device kept turning my accented vowels to question marks. An accented version can be found HERE.

In the same manner as with English folk songs, this chant includes quotes from earlier moteatea, and various versions have developed as it has spread from tribe to tribe. There is a longer version and fuller notes by Margaret Orbell in the book Traditional Songs of the Maori (1975).

1 Po! Po! is probably a shortened form of "Potiki! Potiki!" Oriori were often composed for the potiki, or youngest child of the family.

2 Pou-a-hao-kai is a figure of speech used of seafoods being collected for a feast.
Also, in the legend of Rata, Pou-hao-kai was killed by Rata and his bones used to make fish hooks.

3 Waiu: 'Wai-u,' 'liquid-breast.' This is sometimes used with reference to food which was eaten by the mother to help her fproduce breast-milk.

4 Pari-nui-te-ra, the Great Cliffs of the Sun, is where Hoaki went to get kumara when he returned home to Hawaiki on the voyaging canoe "Te Aratawhao." Young Nick's Head at Gisborne carries the same name in its memory. FULL STORY

5 Tangaroa is the god of the sea and of fish.

6 Uru, Ngangana and their children Te Aotu and Te Aohore are mythical personages.

7 The Stone of Poutini is an expression for greenstone, which in traditional accounts is often referred to as a fish.

8 Maui-whare-kino was a mythical person married to Pani; he stole the kumara from Whanui in the heavens and mated it with his wife, who then gave birth to the kumara in the waters of Monariki. In the next few lines there appear to be references to ritual matters concerned with the kumara and its origin, but the exact meaning of these expressions is uncertain.

9 Pipiwharauro is a white and green variety of greenstone like the plumage of the shining cuckoo.

10 The posts were erected at the tua-ahu, the sacred place or altar where many religious rituals took place.

11 Rongo-maraeroa is one form of the name of Rongo, the god of the cultivation of food and other peacetime pursuits. It is also a sacred name for the kumara. The significance of the lines in which the word occurs is uncertain.

12 Tu is a shortened form of Tu-mata-uenga, the god of war.

Matuatonga is sometimes said to have arrived on board the Takitimu canoe. According to other accounts, Matuatonga is the name of the belt in which the kumara was brought to Aotearoa.

14 Ruatapu and Uenuku lived in Hawaiki, one of the homelands of the Maori. Insulted by his father Uenuku, Ruatapu sought revenge by overturning at sea the canoe which carried his many noble kinsmen. One of them, Paikea, escaped to Aotearoa in the form of a whale (in other accounts, riding on a whale) and landed on the East Coast.

15 Maninitua and Maniniaro occur in the myth of Pourangahua as the kumara digging-sticks which he brought back from Hawaiki, together with the kumara itself, in his journey on the back of the Great Bird of Ruakapanga.

16 Hakirirangi is said to have arrived on the Horouta canoe, and to have brought the kumara with her. She was expert in kumara lore and knew well how to plant it at the time of the flowering of the kowhai.

17 Manawaru and Araiteuru were names of kumara plantations about 15 km east of today's Gisborne. Manawaru Hill and Te Arai te Uru River are the maunga and awa of Manutuke marae.

18 Makauri is the name of a kahikatea (white pine) tree said to have grown from a piece of the underwater forest Toka-ahuru or Ariel Reef offshore from Gisborne. This forest grew from a feather which Pourangahua plucked from his bird when he was flying home with the kumara.

19 The Mangamoteo is one of the headwater streams feeding the Wairoa River. On a helicopter flight from Gisborne to Lake Waikaremoana, you would cross it about halfway there. The Uetanguru stream is not marked on Topomap.co.nz, but it is said to be where the kahikatea tree Makauri was planted, so presumably it is the stream running through the village of Makauri, just north of Gisborne. (Am I correct? Email me) According to some accounts Rongo-rapua is the name of a belt in which the kumara reached this country.

20 Rehua or Antares is the brightest star in what is known in Hawaii as Ka Makau Nui o Maui, "The Big Fishhook of Maui," the curved line of stars of the constellation Scorpius.

Rehua has two wives, Whaka-onge-kai (she who makes food scarce) and Ruhi-te-rangi or Pekehawani (languid, weak). You can see Rehua high in the sky in winter time with these two wives ranged one on either side of him. When Rehua/Antares can be seen on top of Whaka-onge-kai, after sunset in September, winter has almost ended. She is a most voracious female, hence food-supplies have run short. In summer the constellation Scorpio can't be seen at all.

The ninth month of the Maori year (February-March) is sometimes called Ruhi-te-rangi. In the pre-dawn sky Rehua lies beside Ruhi/Pekehawani and all fruits are formed, while all things, food products and even the land and seas, become quiet and languid.

21 The season of the first fruits is autumn, the time when birds and rats are fat.

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Added to this website Dec 2006, revised Sept 2019