Twirled pois symbolise a
proud young woman's emotions: freely
expressed in many different ways, but skillfully
controlled, and
thus drawing others together, like the little Matui
birds did.
1
Terina,
Terina Pōmare
Tāku heitiki e
tāku nei raukura.2
Whakarongo mai ki te pakiwaitara.
Kei raro, kei runga, kya
mau
E rere tāku poi,3
Auē ha, Auē hei ha
Tāku poi porotiti e,4
hei ha hei ha
Whakarongo mai ki te pakiwaitara
Kei raro kei runga kia mau
E rere taku poi.
Te tangi
a te manu
"Tui ..tui ..tui ..tuituia!''5
Kei mara
te pū-tahi-tanga
i ana tō,'6
tō ana rā.
Terina,
Terina Pomare you are my
greenstone pendant,
my precious feather.
Listen to the story.
Down, up, held firmly
my poi is flying.
Oh hey, oh hey
My poi thrums around me.
Listen to its
message
down, up, held firmly
my poi is flying.
just
like the call
of the
friendly little matui bird,4
"Bind, join, be united as one!” reminding
us to cultivate unification
or
"making-one-bundle”
so that we are always at peace.
1.
Hawaiian rhythm Da dum-da-da-da,
dum-da-da-da.
Tommy was director
of the Center for Polynesian Cultural Studies
in Honolulu, where the ukulele was the most
commonly used musical instrument.
2.
Terina was Tommy's very talented
granddaughter who absorbed and perfected
everything he taught her.
Some Maori only had greenstone carvings or huia
feathers to show their status: but Tommy had
Terina!
3.
Taku poi. The whirling poi depicts a
proud young woman's emotions. She radiates a
wide variety of them, but holds them firmly in
her control.
4.
Porotiti is the
whirring sound of a whē-oro-oro or bull-roarer
(or of a boomerang). Poi make a similar,
although quieter, sound.
5.
Tui - Not the big
iridescent nectar-feeding Tui bird, but the verb
"tui" = to thread, bind together, epitomised by
the now-extinct little insect-feeding Matui
birds which worked their way through the forest
in groups, near ground level, constantly keeping
in contact with each other about bugs they
found, thus increasing their chance of success.
This symbolism was used in many older songs. Tui-tuia
6.
Tō - Maori dictionaries
give many meanings for this word;
your, plant stem, moisten, stove, vibrate, open
or shut, drag, calm, peaceful. The last ones
seem to have the only meaning that fits here.
Tommy Taurima
(Ngāti
Kahungunu, b. 1936, d. 2019) His home
was in Nuhaka.He
has written many other Maori songs,
including Kotiro
Maori E.
He
was the director of the Center for
Polynesian Cultural Studies, in Hawaii,
from about 1960 on.In
the 1990s he was a tutor at Manukau
Polytechnic's Nga Mahi a Tane Rore, a
course which gave young Maori and
Polynesian people the basis for a career
in the entertainment industry.
He
has served as a National Kapa Haka
Festival judge and he has taken Maori
concert groups to cultural festivals in
Europe and the USA.
Terina Pomare
Terina has had many years of experience in
Polynesian dance, music, and knowledge. For most
of those years, she had been teaching at a
university level in Performing Arts.
A member of a distinguished family, including
Sir Maui Pomare, she was born in 1973 and was
trained by her maternal grandfather Tommy
Taurima in Maori performance arts from a young
age. She went on to work with him at the
Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii, assisting
him in choreographing songs there. At the same
time she developed her knowledge of other
Polynesian cultures.
She then taught at various institutions around
New Zealand, including the Manukau Institute of
Technology and, more recently, the Te Awamutu
campus of Te Wananga O Aotearoa. She trained
students at these institutions in the performing
arts, and then took her groups all over Europe
and the U.S.
More recently, she has spent some time teaching
Polynesian dance and music at Salt Lake City, in
the USA.
Tui - Not the big
iridescent nectar-feeding Tui bird, but the verb
"tui" = to thread, bind together, epitomised by
the now-extinct little insect-feeding Matui
birds which worked their way through the forest
in groups, near ground level, constantly keeping
in contact with each other about bugs they
found, thus increasing their chance of success.
This symbolism was used in many older songs. 
