NEW  ZEALAND
FOLK * SONG

Nga Iwi E
Hirini Melbourne 1976

Maori Songs - Kiwi Songs - Home

The song for the people of the Pacific. Hirini Melbourne took a kapa haka group to the Festival of the South Pacific in New Caledonia. He wrote the first two verses and asked the other countries attending to add on their own verse.

It was adopted by Greenpeace who sung it on board the Rainbow Warrior while protesting French nuclear testing at Muroroa in French Polynesia.


Am
Nga iwi e! Nga iwi e!
..... G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..Am
Kia kotahi ra te Mo-a-na-"nwi"-kiwa

Am G Am
e-i-a-i-e -----------

All you people! All you people!

Be united as one, like the Pacific Ocean.


(Cries of joy!) "air-ee-ah-ee-air"

Kia mau ra! Kia mau ra!
ki te mana motuhake me te aroha

e-i-a-i-e -----------

Wahine ma! Wahine ma!
Ma-ra-nga mai, Ma-ra-nga mai, kia kaha

e-i-a-i-e -----------

E tama ma! E tama ma!
E tama tu, E tama tu, tama ora!
e-i-a-i-e -----------

Nga iwi e! Nga iwi e!
Kia kotahi mai te Moana-"nwi"-kiwa

e i-a i-e -----------

Hold on firmly! Hold on firmly
to your inheritance, and to compassion.

e-i-a-i-e -----------

All you young women! All you young women
rise up, rise up, be strong

e-i-a-i-e -----------

All you lads! All you lads!
Stand up tall and live like men!
e-i-a-i-e -----------

All you people! All you people!
Be united as one, like the Pacific Ocean.

e-i-a-i-e -----------


They're singing our song in Catalona

"I sing in a choir of amateurs of my village Vilanova i la Geltrú, 50 km south from Barcelona, and in the next concert we enclosed the famous "Nga Iwi E", I attempt to give the best information about it for the presentation to the audience.

On looking for the informations in internet I found that the lyrics are by Hirina Melbourne and the music is by Dan Poynton in 1996. (Editor's Note - Poynton's "Nga Iwi E" piano medley is based on another tune)

The lyrics in our version are:

Nga iwi e, kia kotahe mai te moana-nui-a-kiwa.
Ki a mau ra, ki te mana motuhake me te aroha.
Wahine ma, maranga mai, kia kaha.
Tane ma, wakarongo tautoko hia kaha.

Could you, please confirm the authors and give me the translation of the lyrics.
Our language is Catalan and the same as Maori they are Endangered Languages. We are in the same working place.
Sincerely, Joan Inglada
PS: Joan is John in Catalan."


You can hear Elena, a Maori/Samoan singer in Queensland, singing a wonderfully upbeat version of this song in the clip above, from her 2003 Rivers of the Soul CD.
However, it seems her chorus has gone a little astray becase she sings

..... e-i-a-i-e, whaka-aro ta-kar-u toko, e-i-a-i-e
..... e-i-a-i-e, "think of a floundering sacred pole"??? e-i-a-i-e

This is possibly derived from mistakenly hearing an earlier version

..... e-i-a-i-e, whaka-rongo ta-u-toko, e-i-a-i-e
..... e-i-a-i-e, listen and give support, e-i-a-i-e

 

Maori Songs - Kiwi Songs - Home
Published on the net 23 May 2006