I've decided to drop the Smelting Pot articles for now, because... well, because if I only do one country a week for this series, I'm going to be writing it forever. This left me with some choices about where to pick up for a second article a week, and I decided to go to New Zealand and work West towards Asia. The Polynesian and South-East Asian cultures tend to get left out of music discourse (with the exception of Disney's Moana, I guess) so it seems a good pairing with Africa.
New Zealand! Land of the Maori, the British, and Peter Jackson's hobbits. I was surprised to learn that the settling of the islands is recent. Like, Medieval Times recent. Current evidence points to Polynesian settling in the late 13th century. To put this into context for my Anglophone readers, the first settlers in New Zealand didn't show up until AFTER Notre Dame Cathedral was finished. This makes New Zealand the last of the large islands to be settled by humans.
The indigenous culture, the Maori, might be somewhat familiar because their distinctive tattooing, called moko, attracted many American and European artists and writers, making the Maori a prime target of the noble savage trope. Despite suppression of the Maori culture during the early 20th century, the people hung tough and now look to stay. The Maori language has made a come back, as well (we'll look at that more with my composer of the day) and is now an official language of New Zealand. Somewhat curiously, the Maori took to writing very quickly once it was introduced, and most of their previously oral traditions have been preserved in book form.
Europeans arrived only slightly later than the Maori. Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer, sighted the islands in 1642, and the UK signed the Treaty of Waitangi with the Maori in 1840, making the islands a colony a year later. There's not too much to add about the European side of things, so instead, here is a list of flightless birds native to the islands: the kiwi, the kakapo, the weka, and the takahe. These are all birds that lost the ability to fly, largely because of the lack of humans; specifically, the lack of animals that like to follow humans around and eat birds and bird eggs, like rats, cats, and dogs. Well, jokes on them, I guess. The kakapo, at least, got their revenge when one of the few remaining birds, in a pique of evolutionary frustration, proceeded to mate with the back of Mark Carwardine's head.
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Our composer of the day is Te Kumeroa Pewhairangi (1921-1985). While she was a composer of songs, Te Kumeroa lived a life that extended far beyond music. She was also a teacher of the Maori language, tutoring the Maori club at Gisborne Girls' High School and then teaching Maori studies at Gisborne's University of Waikito. She also spearheaded the Tu Tangata program in cooperation with the Department of Maori Affairs, which helped reconnect urban at-risk Maori youths with their family tribes, and she was a key leader in the kohanga reo movement, which aims to revive and revitalize that Maori language in schools.
Two of Te Kumeroa's songs topped the New Zealand charts: Poi E and E Ipo. Poi E stands out for a number of reasons. Scored by Dalvanius Prime, a Maori entertainer and mentor, Poi E's style is a blend of hip-hop, gospel, funk, and show-band elements. Unable to receive backing from the major New Zealand labels, Dalvanius Prime produced the song himself on his own label, Maui Records. Its popularity was achieved kind of by accident. The song had no radio or television marketing, but received a brief new story on a local network. It suddenly shot to the number one spot on the charts, and remains something of a cult classic in New Zealand culture. The group which sang the song, Patea Maori Club, was made a one hit wonder on the back of this tune.
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