| NEW ZEALAND FOLK * SONG |
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Pariare Tomoana gave an account of the origin of Pokarekare Ana in the 1921 2nd edition of his booklet "A Noble Sacrifice," sold in aid of a fund for Maori soldiers who had fought in The Great War.
These ditties emanated in the North of Auckland and were popularised in Narrowneck Camp, and eventually drifted to Torere in the the Bay of Plenty, thence to the East Cape. There they took the present form with appropriate action, and acquired close association with the last drafts of single men from the East Cape and Wairoa districts, known officially as the 19th and 20th Maori Reinforcements.
The original 1914 Northland version was probably a verse beginning Pokarekare ana ngā wai o Hoki-anga, and it was possibly set to a Dalmatian fiddler's dance tune.
Narrowneck Camp was at Takapuna, Auckland.After World War One started in late 1914, Maori soldiers from different tribal areas met there and swapped songs. The ditties would not have got to the East Coast until a year or so later.
The 19th and 20th Maori Reinforcements were training at Narrowneck in May-June of 1917, so it would appear that the wai o Waiapu phrase was not added to the song until mid 1917.
Sentiments similar to these Northland words were apparently expressed in an April 1912 love-letter by Paraire Tomoana, a divorced 40-year-old man, in a bid to win the hand of 18-year-old Kuini Ripeka Raerena (Ryland). This has led to a mistaken belief that Paraire Tomoana actually wrote the song.
In the Daily Telegraph, Hastings. August 6th, 1987, Ngatai Huata said that Pokarekare Ana was originally written as a letter in 1912 to Queenie Ryland who lived at Tokomaru Bay.
Unfortunately, the letter in question was never produced to support this claim.
In March 2002, on a tv documentary about Pokarekare Ana, one of Ms. Huata's brothers said the family never heard this 1912 story from their parents or grandparents: they heard it much later from "others." This would suggest that their parents or grandparents had never heard of the 1912 story either.
Whatever its origins, the important thing is that Ms. Huata's very praise-worthy actions put the song safely under the cloak of Tomoana whanau guardianship, and thus protected it from political exploitation.
However Apirana Ngāta was also a talented composer, and Paiare Tomoana used to visit him at his home at Waiomatatini. The Ngāta homestead there, Te Wharehou, overlooked the lower reaches of the Waiapu river. And Ngata and Tomoana are known to have colaborated in writing other songs like Te Opi Tuatahi. More about Ngata
The different writing style of each verse suggests that different hands may have helped shape them.
Pokarekare ana nga wai o Waiapu . . .
This verse is a very effective image of the soul-deep trembling anxiety of new love. A poet who was very proficient with with the use of imagery wrote these lines.
Tomoana tried to express this anxious love in another song Tahi nei taru kino, as "He aha kei taku uma pākikini nei ? - What is this within my chest that pinches so?
But this clumsy line always attracted jokes about indigestion, and so it is not sung any more.
Tuhi-tuhi raku reta tuku... taku... kia kite . . . raru raru . . .
Look at all that all those repetitive syllables! This verse was written by someone who was very proficient with word-play.
E kore te aroha e maroke i te ra makuku tonu i aku roimata e.
While this verse speaks straight from the heart, without imagery or word-play.
Tomoana and Ngata probably reworked the ditties slightly to portray the local story of the love of a Hawkes Bay man (Tomoana) for an East Cape girl (Kuini). This would have given the song great power in strengthening the bonds of comradeship of the departing Hawkes Bay and East Cape fighting men.
Notice that the first time credit is given to Tomoana's individual effort in connection with the song is on a 1927 music sheet which says"words and music arranged by P H Tomoana." Arranged by, not "composed by". And again, in 1949, Inia Te Wiata gives its composition as"Trad., arr. Piripata."
Tomoana's DNZB biography says that in June 1917 he organised a song and dance group that gave performances to raise money for the Maori Soldiers' Fund. He took 55 men and women to perform at a wedding at Ngata's marae of Waiomatatini near the East Cape.
This was when the "others" heard it sung first, and over the decades it become combined in their minds with the love poem of similar sentiment that Tomoana expressed in a letter to Kuini in 1912, and sang to her at Gisborne in 1913.
"Most songs were composed as a group effort, even though one person was credited with the song. The same is still happening with action songs.(said Awatere in 1973)
"Songs were reworked because the melody and symbolism of the words were liked, and to make the song appropriate to the new context."
Pokarekare Ana was probably a result of this group process. Here is a scenario of its origins.
Pariare Tomoana composed some verses with similar sentiments to win the hand of Kuini in 1912, and may have sung them at Gisborne in 1913.
And some Northland parent or lover composed these lines to sing to a boy who was going off to the war E kore te aroha ('My love will be forever moistened by my tears') with the chorus "E tama e, hoki mai ra . . . ( 'O darling boy, come back to me . . . ')
The boy and his mates took these lines south to Narrowneck army camp (Takapuna, Auckland) in 1914.
Other recruits added more verses, and reworked them.
Soldiers home on final leave early in 1917 brought the verses to Torere in the the Bay of Plenty, where Tomoana heard them.
He then went to visit Apirana Ngata at Waiomatatini, near the East Cape, where the two men polished the melody, and reworked the Northland ditties to portray the local story of the love of a Hawkes Bay man (Tomoana) for an East Cape girl (Kuini).
This would have given the song great power in strengthening the bonds of comradeship of the Hawkes Bay and East Cape men who were then being recruited as the 19th and 20th Maori Reinforcements.
In June 1917, Tomoana organised a song and dance group that gave performances to raise money for the Maori Soldiers' Fund.
On July 7th 1917, Tomoana's concert party performed Pokarekare as an action song for the 19th and 20th Maori Reinforcements before they departed, as combat engineers, to construct trenches, under enemy fire, in the swamps of Passchendale.