No hea te Kitā Māori? Where did the ‘Māori Guitar’ come from?

WHAKATAUKĪ

Kia kawea tātou e te rēhia

Let us be taken by the spirit of joy, of entertainment

This whakataukī (saying) indicates that performance-based entertainment was central to Māori society long before the first arrival of Europeans. Whare tapere was the name given to sites used for entertainments such as storytelling, dance, music and games. Sometimes this name referred to a special building, but more often a suitable outdoor location such as the base of a notable tree was designated a whare tapere.

Source: Māori theatre - te whare tapere hōu - Origins of Māori theatre, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

INTRODUCED MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

After European settlement, a number of factors led to the near-demise of use of taonga puoro (traditional Māori instruments). Many of the ceremonies at which they were played disappeared with the introduction of Christianity. Māori themselves put aside their traditional instruments in favour of introduced versions such as the jew’s harp, which replaced its equivalent, the rōria. Māori musicians were swift and adept at adopting a wide range of new instruments including banjos, pianos, bagpipes, brass-band instruments and, perhaps most popular of all, the guitar.

Source: Māori musical instruments – taonga puoro - Decline and revival of Māori instruments, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

VIDEO

Mid 20th century Māori music

In the 1950s and 1960s action songs were made popular by Māori showbands and by other performers such as the Howard Morrison Quartet. During the Māori cultural renaissance, new clubs and culture groups were set up, and original songwriting was encouraged. Songwriters and singers such as Prince Tui Teka, Moana Maniapoto and Dalvanius Prime developed a Māori-influenced style, and used the Māori language. Ngoi Pēwhairangi wrote the hit songs ‘E ipo’ and ‘Poi e’.

Instruments

Early composers and performers often used the piano and violin. The guitar became dominant in the mid-20th century, and in the later 20th century taonga puoro (traditional Māori instruments) were revived.

Source: Waiata hōu – contemporary Māori songs, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

OTHER INSTRUMENTS

SUPPORTING RESOURCES

A history of Aotearoa in seven musical instruments — here are some key themes in the history of Aotearoa New Zealand, traced through musical instruments.

Jingajik Guitar — Te Ahi Kaa explores the guitar.

Māori strumming pattern — Michael Brown interviewed Charles Royal on the dumdejak strum popular in Māori songs.

Michael Parekowhai: Ten Guitars — Parekowhai’s Ten Guitars project is based on the Engelbert Humperdinck song. 

Ten guitars — Ten Guitars became the anthem of 1960s Maori who had suffered the dislocation of moving from back-country marae to the Big Smoke.

Ten Riffs on the Maori Strum —what is the most popular and enduring guitar style to have yet emerged from Aotearoa-New Zealand? 

The Māori strum — the ‘boom-chucka-boom-chucka’ “Māori strum” turned a British song – Ten Guitars – into an unofficial Kiwi national anthem. 

This story was curated and compiled by Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa | National Library of New Zealand, Services to Schools staff, May 2019.