Maori Songs - Kiwi Songs - Home

 

Mr Gormsby (David MaPhail) and Form 5F present a bicultural minstrel show at the Tepapawai Boys High School concert.

D'ere was an old Maori, his name was Matua Ned, He dead long ago, long ago. He hab no wool on de top of his 'poko In de plarce where de wool ought t'grow. Den lay down de shubble and de taiaha Hang up de fiddle and de bow -ow -ow. No more mahi for poor Matua Ned; He gone wha de good Maoris go. No more mahi for poor Matua Ned.... He gone wha de good Maoris go. On a cold, frosty morning poor Matua Ned died; Massa's tears down his cheek fell like rain, He knew when Ned were laid in the whenua He'd neber see his like again-ua

There was an old Maori, his name was Uncle Ned, He died long ago, long ago. He has no wool on the top of his head In the place where the wool ought to grow. Then lay down the shovel and the pikestaff Hang up the fiddle and the bow. No more hard work for poor Uncle Ned; He's gone where the good Maoris go. No more hard work for poor Uncle Ned; He's gone where the good Maoris go. On a cold, frosty morning poor Uncle Ned died; The boss's tears down his cheek fell like rain, He knew when Ned was laid in the ground He'd never see his like again

Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby

This song was a highlight of the highly popular satirical 2005 TV series "Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby." Old Mr Gormsby (David McPhail) is the teacher of a bottom-stream class of misfit adolescent boys, mostly Maori and Pacific Islanders, and he upsets the other teachers because he has the old colonial British attitudes, while they spout all the politically correct "tangata whenua" Maori phrases Mr Gormsby describes as "All that kia ora mumbo jumbo." But the other teachers, both Maori and Pakeha, lack the honesty and aroha that form the backbone of a real Maori community, while Mr Gormsby is sucessful because he calls a spade a spade and works to instill discipline and pride in his boys. When the school principal wants a bicultural concert to impress a visiting school inspector, the boys in 5F want to do a "hip-hop," a song and dance act of today's urban Black Americans. Mr Gormsby correctly describes it as spastic and obscene rubbish and starts teaching them Stephen Foster's song "Uncle Ned." "Dere was an old nigga, dey called him Uncle Ned" But the School Principal objects to the word "nigga" and so this PC Maori version is performed, to become the most popular item of the concert.

Maori Songs - Kiwi Songs - Home

Published on this website 8 November, 2007