Pātaka Whaka-waiata

Haehae

This powhiri is used when a body is brought on to the marae.
In the 1970s this chant was rarely heard and was used mainly in Taranaki and Ngati Porou regions. (Salmond, 1976)

Here the head-smashing, man-eating reptile is a figurative description of the death of anybody. But the ancestors of Maori last encountered man-eating crocodiles when they were passing through the Solomon Islands 5000 years ago, so this chant is recalling a very old folk-memory indeed.

As the pallbearers carry the coffin into the marae they may be greeted with this powhiri for the dead.

Kawakawa is the source of herbal medicines for kidney disorders, boils, bruises and toothache. In the Pacific Islands the root fibres of a related species is crushed and mixed with water as kava. Kava is drunk primarily as a relaxant and diuretic, but also as a symbol of wishing each other "Good Health." Thus kawakawa leaves in the Islands are a symbol of health and life.

This chant calls on you to drop them, as a symbol of dying. (Afterwards you should pick the leaves up and dispose of them, as they are now tapu.) Salmond notes that in the 1960s she saw any type of leaf used at tangi; even macrocarpa or lily leaves.

In powhiri in past days, leafy branches from any tree were waved to welcome approaching groups. But if people were seen waving kawakawa branchlets, then it was obvious that there had been a death, so with the decline of herbal medicine in NZ, kawakawa leaves have apparently become a symbol of death!

Kua Ngaro Koe

E Ngā Iwi o te Motu nei

In a Canoe

Nau mai taku manu

The tune of this song is a simplified variant of I'm Gonna Lock My heart (and throw away the key) words Jimmy Eaton / tune Terry Shand 1938
Putiputi is a recent Maori word for flower, derived from pretty-pretty. .

The lyrics here are those sung by the Maori Battalion Reinfocements in 1942, using Tuini's original words "Piri rawa i tēnei uma e."
In recent times times, this final line has been sung as "Piri rawa i tēnei hūnga e". (I will hold you tightly to this eruption)
This could refer to either the singer's bursting heart, or to his loins. Or maybe to both!

E Te Tau

Tau mai 

Marama Pai

 Sung by Daphne Walker and backed by Bill Sevesi (c. 1956?)
And recorded by the Howard Morrison Quartet in 1958.
Hawaiian music was glamorous in the 1950s, so Daphne and Bill introduced several Maori songs to the New Zealand public by using a steel guitar/ukulele Island-style backing. As a bonus, the records could also be sold in Samoa, Rarotonga, Tahiti and Hawaii.

E te Atua

Mō Maria

Written by Bishop Pompallier, first Catholic bishop, in Northland. He belonged to a French religious Order, the Society of Mary, which had special devotion to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, naming her as Queen of Heaven. He seems to have borrowed the tune from the famous Baptist hymn written in 1864, "Shall we gather at the river?"

The 19th century Catholic theology was that the angels in heaven honoured Mary as their Queen.

Note that waiata is sung with 4 syllables as wa-i-a-ta, not wy-a-ta, and nui is sung as one sylllable, nwi, not nu-i.

Moe mai e hine          Sleep girl
i te moenga roa         the long sleep 
Raro i te rata          	beneath the rata tree
mokemoke a.             alone.

Ma te Atua             	May God
koe e tiaki mai e        keep you.  
Moe mai e hine          Sleep girl
i te moenga roa.         the long sleep.