Waiata of the Heart
On my first day at Primary School I was chosen for the Infants Choir, I was five years old but I remember it as if it was yesterday. My teacher was Jean Millett who taught Primer 1 at Terrace School in my home town of Waipukurau in Central Hawkes Bay. I credit her (along with Joyce Hayden, my music teacher at Central Hawkes Bay College with my great love for both singing and hearing the range that is the human voice.
Musical Beginnings
She did this ritual where she’d walk along the rows of singing children, listening with her ear very close to your lips and if you had IT (right pitch and tone) you got a tap on the shoulder and had to make your way over to join the others in the choir. I don’t know whether it’s the air, something in the water or the mud between our toes but New Zealand has its kete (flax basket) share of world class singers across many genres.
Back at Haranui Marae, “the singing of waiata or song usually follows each mihi and whaikorero (formal greetings exchanged between host and visitor). The mana or esteem of a speaker is elevated when accompanied by a song that is chosen to relate to the content of the speech. It is the act of singing the waiata in support of the speaker that is important.”
Usually you’ll find the kuia or female elders jostling to position themselves around the speaker to initiate the waiata. Depending on the occasion, singing can be full of life and laughter or, in times of tragedy, so eloquently mournful that even a hardened warrior has difficulty maintaining composure.
Waiata have a broad application and detailed levels of understanding. Traditional waiata of the ancestors were often aligned with spiritual events, which could include supporting karakia or prayer to evoke supernatural forces. Combined with karakia, waiata could be used in acts of aroha (love) or makutu (evil or destructive forces). Today waiata are sung in many languages and for many different reasons. Visitors that sing of their homeland or in their native tongue are said to bestow their hosts with the voice and sound of their ancestors. This is considered a great gift and honour.”
Te Here Tangata, The Rope of Mankind
Singing and music have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, infact I can’t remember when it wasn’t but it truly struck me at my core when a kuia sang our whakapapa to us. My heart seemed to leap like a trout out of water and though I didn’t understand the words of the waiata, it didn’t matter, te here tangata (the rope of mankind) was pulling me across the generations. I understood it in the core of my being and that’s where it mattered most to me.
Behind the kuia, the sun shone, and around the windowsills of my heart I could feel its rays warming the panes. And for some unknown reason the strains of a childhood folk song came to my mind:
When the Tui Sings
“When the Tui sings in the kowhai tree l and the sun tips the mountain tops with gold l when the rata blooms in the forest glade l and the hills glow with sunny tints untold l I love to roam through bush and fern l and hear the bellbird sing l and feel the touch of the wind on my face l while the joy in my heart does ring
There are some who long for coral sands l and some for wind-swept plains l while others roam the ocean wide l then pine for home again l But give to me the care-free life l by mountain, lake or shore of the lovely land of the Long White Cloud l Our Homeland Aotearoa.”
