. Poetry Notes Autumn 2013 Volume 4, Issue 1 ISSN 1179-7681 Quarterly Newsletter of PANZA (Gregory O’Brien, A Nest of Singing Inside this Issue Welcome Birds, 2007: 71). Until the late 1960s and the early 1970s Māori writers in New Hello and welcome to issue 13 of Zealand were scarcely mentioned in the Welcome Poetry Notes, the newsletter of PANZA, annals of New Zealand’s national 1 the newly formed Poetry Archive of literature. The names of Hone Tuwhare Michael O’Leary on early New Zealand Aotearoa. (Ngā Puhi), Witi Ihimaera (Te Aitanga- Māori women poets and Poetry Notes will be published quarterly a-Māhaki, Ngāti Porou), and Rore Hapipi waiata and will include information about aka Rowley Habib (Ngāti Tūwharetoa), goings on at the Archive, articles on are the more obvious male writers who historical New Zealand poets of interest, Classic New Zealand began to be noticed. However, there poetry by Marie R Randle occasional poems by invited poets and a were also Māori women writing during 5 record of recently received donations to the 1940s to the 1970s period, none of the Archive. whom appeared in the major poetry The Ladies’ Guide to Articles and poems are copyright in the Cricket by A Lover of Both anthologies of the time. 6 names of the individual authors. c1883 The newsletter will be available for free No Māori woman, no cry download from the Poetry Archive’s Comment on George website: Neither Curnow’s A Book of New 9 Clarke Zealand Verse (1945) nor An Anthology http://poetryarchivenz.wordpress.com of New Zealand Verse (1956) edited by Comment on the Stratford Robert Chapman and Bennett, included 10 Evening Post any Māori women poets. Some Māori Michael O’Leary on women writing at the time may have been composers of waiata, pōwhiri, and Donate to PANZA through early Māori women other traditional forms of verbal PayPal 11 expression, and although their works poets and waiata may not have reached beyond the Marae Recently received and the local tribal areas where they were donations Aotearoa writer and publisher, written and performed during this period, they should have been acknowledged in About the Poetry Archive Dr Michael O’Leary discusses Māori women’s poetry and waiata of the early these major anthologies as weavers of and middle period of the 20th century. the word in Aotearoa New Zealand. Erihapeti Murchie In this essay I discuss the Māori women poets and songwriters and their virtual non-existence in the New Zealand One composer of waiata and poetry is literary world before the 1970s, when Erihapeti Murchie, a rangatira me wahine toa of Kai Tahu, Kati Mamoe, PANZA Patricia Grace of Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa and Te Āti Awa published her first Waitaha and Ngāti Raukawa. Born and PO Box 6637 raised at Arowhenua, near Temuka, her Marion Square work, Waiariki, said to be ‘the first book of stories written by a Māori woman’ work encapsulates the definition given Wellington 6141 above and she is a good example of a . Autumn 2013 Māori woman who wrote about living in highest peak) was given to her whānau Skimming the stream the Pākehā world and Te Ao Māori, and in recognition of her achievements. One And slim black eels within, who had achievements in both, beyond of Erihapeti Murchie’s waiata shows her Aloft in trembling flight most people’s ability to succeed in only talent for composition on the spot. At The flick flack tiwaiwaka one. While at Christchurch Teachers’ the tangi of Kai Tahu leader Tipene Pirouetting its delicate haka College Erihapeti met and married O’Regan’s father there was no song for And the Little White Bridge Malcolm Murchie, a Pākehā from his poroporoakī so she was able to sing Triumphant stands still Whanganui. Together they had ten this waiata atāhua, ‘Papaki te Tai’, To spring floods, children and both shared a common which she composed spontaneously: interest in politics, the arts, conservation But life is ever changing and social justice, attending rallies Papaki te tai ki uta ra With voices stilled and the richness against apartheid in South Africa and the Whatiwhati te waka, tere iho ki raro ra, That the tidal flow is witness to Vietnam War. In an unpublished memoir Has ebbed – and Awarua titled ‘What I Believe’ Erihapeti stated: Tumokemoke te iwi ki raro e, No more chatters Te korowai o te Aitua, o kaa roimata e, Free from the bridge below. My attitudes and my hierarchy of (Murchie, private papers: unpublished). beliefs have filtered through from Takihia mihia poroporoaketia the ancestral past of a largely Haere hoki e te wairua ki kaa tupuna e Māori researcher, historian, and dispossessed takatā whenua (people composer of waiata, Charles Royal, has of the land – the Māori) … my Waihoa matou hei whakawhiriwhiri written about the aspect of Mōteatea that people will retain their status as Te ara tika mo kaa mokopuna Murchie evokes so well. Whilst Royal is kaitiaki ō te mauri ō te whenua I tēnei Ao hurihuri e talking generally about the art form in an (custodians of the spirit of the land) historical context his words could … shaping of a culture distinctly Here is her English translation of it: equally apply to her writing. Royal Aotearoa New Zealand that blends writes: Polynesian with other European ‘Waves crashing’ elements (Murchie, private papers: Clearly Māori did and do create unpublished). Waves crashing against the cliff, poetical compositions which might The waka is broken down below, be described as literature, Along with her Ratana religious beliefs particularly oral literature; yet the these kaupapa underpin Erihapeti The iwi sit in sadness under, term fails to capture the entirety of Murchie’s life. She did much to help her The cloak of the Aitua, and tears the tradition. For example, most people both formally and informally. writers in the West have since the When her family moved to Dunedin she We’ve wept, mihied, Renaissance intended their works to was instrumental in obtaining the site The spirit has returned to the tipuna, be represented on the written page. for the urban marae, Araiteuru, and her Mōteatea [Māori song or poetic whānau would awhi many young Māori And we will remain to seek composition] composers on the other students living in the predominantly The right path of the mokopuna hand conceive their work essentially Pākehā city of Dunedin in the 1960s and Within the changing and turning world for performance, while the ‘literary’ 1970s. Among her many official (Murchie, private papers: unpublished). quality of the texts cannot be denied positions she was National President of (Royal, in Oxford Companion to the Māori Women’s Welfare League, A poem, ‘Awarua (Te Hura Kohatu)’, New Zealand Literature, 1998: 346). 1977 to 1980. During this period she written at Arowhenua sees Murchie in a completed a Māori research project, reflective mood, thinking about the Maewa Kaihau Rapuora Health and Māori women, and impermanence of life and her she was active in getting government interpretation of and affinity with Another example of a Māori woman policies changed in Māori health, te reo nature: writing, this time early in the 20th Māori, and education. In 1989 Victoria Century, is Maewa Kaihau, who wrote University conferred on her an I have a passion here the words to the tune ‘Now is the Hour’ Honorary Doctorate in Law. For quiet waters brooding deep which began as a modified Swiss lullaby Coupled with these outward In the curve and sweep of a narrow for the singing of ‘Po Atarau’ to farewell achievements, Erihapeti Murchie also trough meandering Māori World War One soldiers. In 1920 composed and taught waiata to her Through willowed banks, Kaihau wrote a ‘This is the Hour’ verse, whānau to ensure they understood and and in 1935 she again adapted the ‘Po remembered their ancestral links to Kai And languid in its flow Atarau’ verse. This became the ‘Haere Tahu and Kati Mamoe. When she died The white dressed cress is haunt Ra’ waltz song, which was sung when in 1997 the Kai Tahu whakatauki To the water crabs and speckled trout steamships were departing New Zealand ‘Whaia ki te tei tei’ (reach for the That taunt the dragon flies 2 . Poetry Archive for overseas. English wartime singer Hokioi, Te Wananga, Te Orchestra. Most of her songs were set to Gracie Fields learnt ‘Haere Ra’ on a Pipiwharauroa, Toa Takitini, The popular tunes because, for Ngawai, their visit to New Zealand in 1945. Her Polynesian Journal, and so forth. vital message lay in the words rather than version of it, known as ‘Now is the Much of the best writing by Maoris the music, and the performers had to Hour’, became a world-wide hit in today is in English ... [however] the learn the songs by heart as quickly as 1948. The first and last verses became preservation of the Maori tongue possible for each new occasion. From extremely popular, and Kaihau claimed depends on its continued use for 1953 Ngawai entered her senior cultural that all the words and tune were her literary purposes, as in song and group from Te Hokowhitu-a-Tu in the own work. oratory. As there are only a limited Tamararo Māori cultural competitions Kaihau’s words were not copyrighted number of people who reach a high held in Gisborne. until 1928 and more recently Dick standard in literary Maori, they do a Ngawai trained and entered two youth Grace has claimed most of the words as great service by publishing their groups and most years these three groups the work of his family.