NEW  ZEALAND
WAIATA * POI

Toia Mai Te Waka Nei
Wiremu Te Ranga Poutapu


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A call to take care the new supporting  legislation, or "canoe," supporting the Treaty of Waitangi, because it is a sign of a new summer of Maori pride.       

Toia mai1 te waka nei
Kumea mai te waka nei
Ki te takotoranga i takoto ai
Tiriti2 te mana motuhake3

Te tangi a te manu e4
Pipi-wha-rau-roa5
Kui! Kui! Kui!
Whitiwhiti ora!
Hui e, ta?iki e.
Haul this canoe
drag the canoe up here
to its
resting place;
the Treaty gives us our autonomy.

May the cry of the bird,
the shining cuckoo
- Quee! Quee! Quee! -
signal a change for the better.
Draw together, become intertwined!

G Toia mai te waka nei
Em Kumea mai te waka nei
G Ki te takotoranga i C takoto ai
A7 Tiriti te mana D7 motuhake

G Te tangi a te manu e
Pipi-wha-rau-C-roa
Kui! Kui! Kui!
G Whitiwhiti ora!
D7 Hui e, taiki G e

Toia Mai te waka nei is the second verse of a song that master carver Piri Poutapu composed after he was instructed by Te Puea Herangi, in 1936, to build seven carved waka taua representing the people of the seven principal voyaging canoes that arrived in Aotearoa from Hawaiki.

The waka taua would go to Waitangi for the 1940 centennial of the signing of the Treaty. They would be shown nationwide on newsreels in picture theatres as symbols of a Maori renaissance. And hapu scratching a living in depopulated back country areas, impoverished and isolated after a century of war, poverty and epidemics, would get the message that conditions were about to change for the better. Here is the first verse.

Tenei ra a Waikato
Tahi tu tonu te haere
i te mataara o nga marae
i takahia nga wa o muri

ahakoa tupuhi nga hau
nga hau o te ao
Kui! Kui! Kui!
Whitiwhiti ora!
Hui e, taiki e.
On this day, Waikato people
started out on a mission
to alert all the marae
struggling in the back country areas

that even though the winds have been stormy,
the winds of the dawn
- Quee! Quee! Quee! -
are signaling a change for the better.
Draw together, become intertwined!

1 Toia Mai

A big ornate war canoe was a symbol of the independence and mana of the tribe, (like British battleships in the early 20th century and US aircraft carriers today) and needed protection from the elements. It was hauled from the water after use, and stored in a boat shed.

Piri Poutapu and his team began their project by hauling the waka Te Winika out of the mud. It had been built in the early 1800s and was rotting away on the riverbank at Tuakau. The restoration of Te Winika for the centennial of the Treaty was a milestone in the renewal of Maori mana and autonomy. Te Winika is now in the Waikato museum.

2 Te Tiriti

At Waitangi in 1840, after 20 years of ruinous inter-tribal musket wars, Maori signed sovereignty of their country over to Britain, in return for guarantees about their land and other possessions.

But a giant land grab (E Pa To Hau) then took place when British capitalists and venal officials ignored this treaty for the next 120 years.


3 Mana Motuhake

Literally "separated prestige," or the authority and capacity to be autonomous.

This is a political term created during post-Waitangi attempts (Hoia Ra Nga Waka Nei) by Maori groups to continue to control their own affairs or regain jurisdiction that had been removed or lost.


4 Te Tangi A Te Manu

This is an old karakia (Whakarongo ki te tangi o te manu e karanga ake nei, hui, hui, hui, huia...) whose words have been incorporated into this modern poi song. It connects us to world of the atua by way of bird-calls, and then it focuses on the good news of the shining cuckoo's distinctive September bird-cry announcing the end of winter ...May the spirits give us a summer that is without storms or drought. Metaphorically ...May the spirits give us what the Treaty promises.

This karakia
would originally have been chanted in a fast monotone. Listen to a similar karakia.


5 The Shining Cuckoo


The Pipiwharauroa spends winter in the Solomon Islands and then flies down to New Zealand in late September to breed in our forests. It replaces the eggs in Grey Warblers' nests with its own eggs, and leaves those little birds to hatch and rear its chicks.



Wiremu (Piri) Te Ranga Poutapu

(Ngati Koroki, Tainui)
Born in Maungatautari in 1905, the son of Pouaka Winikerei, a carpenter, and of Rangitaau Paraki. He was whangaied to Te Puea Herangi and accompanying her to Ngaruawahia in 1921 to establish Turangawaewae marae. Piri worked mainly as a carpenter. His first carving project was Pare Waikato, in 1927. In 1929 he went to study carving at Ohinemutu for 3 years, learning from Eramiha Kapua adzing and carving, as well as karakia and rules of tapu proper to the art.

In 1932 he returned to Ngaruawahia and established a carving school similar to that at Ohinemutu.

By 1936 he began a project to carve seven war canoes for Te Puea. Due to lack of funding, only three of the projected seven canoes were completed for the nation's centennial celebrations at Waitangi in 1940.

In 1943 he quarrelled with Te Puea and left Turangawaewae. Without his expertise the canoes were not kept in good repair and could not be used for ceremonial occasions.

In 1971, for the Auckland Anniversary Regatta, he repaired the canoe Te Winika, and trained the crew for the Auckland event. The following year, the building of Taheretikitiki II began at Ngaruawahia. He led the team renovating the old central hull section and performed the necessary rituals. Taheretikitiki II was launched in 1973.

In 1974 he was made an MBE. He was planning the final designs of several more canoes when he died at Turangawaewae marae on 20 August 1975. His wife, Ngamako, had died in 1969 and he was survived by three sons and a daughter. He was buried on Taupiri Mountain.

If you can make any corrections or improvements to this webpage, please email me. [email protected]

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Page made May 2008. Thanks to Turongo Paki for additional information July 2012.