NZ FOLKSONG * Maori Songs

Songbooks

Maori songbook contents
This is an almost full list I have made of all the song titles in these Maori songbooks and other older, out-of-print ones.

Waiata Maori (1992)
T. H. Rikihana.
300+ Maori songs
with translations.
Two photocopied volumes
plus 6 cassettes.

A Century Of Maori Song (2002) compiled by Keith Southern. CDs also available.

The Maisy Rika Songbook is very similar, mostly reprints from A Century of Maori Song.

He Koha, (2001)
Produced by Blossom Taewa. Twelve of our best-known songs, also in karaoke, CD and video formats.

Waiata Mai, 35 Maori Songs (1991, 2005) by Kare Rapata Leathem. Well-known songs, useful for leaning Maori, or for a first marae visit, with translations and a CD.

Maori song reference material: Traditional Songs of the Maori. McLean & Orbell. Academic study of old chants. Auckland University Press 2004 - currently out of print, ask at a public library.; Nga Moteatea, Sir Apirana Ngata
The source book of these old chants, recently reprinted, with CDs.; Ko Nga Moteatea, ed. Sir George Grey. Now readable on-line. It is the source of Ngata's book.

CD recording hints; Alan Armstrong has some good advice for those recording a Maori concert CD.

Other Maori Song sites: Te Ao Hou, the online re-issue of the 1950s-70s Maori magazine Waiata
St. Joseph's MGC: school songs; Ngati Ranginui: Waiata
Ministry of Education, Moteatea MP3s; Tarrangower School: Ruapehu
Wellington Kapahaka: Waiata

Editor's note

Kia ora koutou

Please forgive me for any errors here. If you can send me any corrections or additions to be added here, I would be most grateful.

My hobby has been learning about songs of the rural white New Zealand way of life. I started this NZ Folk Song website to make information about these Pakeha songs available to others.

But people kept e-mailing me to ask for information about Mäori songs. So I started this page to help my visitors. And it has grown to become my most visited page by far, with 9000 visitors a month.

To find out about different versions of old Maori songs, I search the NZ National Library's online database.

And I'm finding a wealth of information about waiata in all twenty years of copies of Te Ao Hou that are online.

The most useful printed resource I have for words and translations is Waiata Maori by the late Toby Rikihana. This is a compilation of about 300 waiata for primary and secondary school teachers of te Reo Mäori. If you are in NZ, you can hunt for it at your local library or Kohange Reo. Here is how you can buy it.

I also have these Maori songbooks too. If you would like me to hunt through them for you, e-mail me.

John Archer
Ngati Tumatauenga
Waiouru