Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Pokarekare Ana
When the Howard Morrison Quartet had a hit with Hoki Mai in 1959 it wasn't without controversy. It was an upbeat revision of Henare Waitoa's Tomo Mai which had been written to welcome the men from the 28thMāori Battalion back from the Second World War.
Some older folk objected to the cheery Morrison version (which was part of Rotorua's songbook already).
Decades later Dalvanius was briefly troubled by those who felt his Poi E written with Ngoi Pewhairangi was disrespectful to Māori culture, and even Pewhairangi expressed some early reservations.
Perhaps simply because here were those are songs in te reo Maori becoming popular that they attracted attention, both welcome and unwelcome.
It seems, happily, those days are long past and te reo – one of the three official languages of Aotearoa New Zealand alongside English and sign language – is now simply a part of our musical landscape.
Even so it takes considerable self-confidence to undertake a project like this by Geneva AM (Geneva Alexander-Marsters: Ngāti Ruapani mai Waikaremoana, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa, Aitutaki, Palmerston) where she reworks some Māori standards.
She delivers a pulsing modernisation of Pokarekare Ana (which the Morrison Quartet also did on the b-side of Hoki Mai) here billed as an “emo cover, a treatment of Wiremu Te Tau Huata's Tutira Mai Nga Iwi (opening with an invitation to join in as she sings it unaccompanied before the propulsive dancebeat pulls into a nightclub) and an electropop overhaul of the equally well-known and moving Purea Nei, written by Hirini Melbourne after the death of a student and inviting their wairua to be set free to soar.
These are woven into this bilingual collection of soulful electrobeat pop with Toitu Te Tiriti/Uphold the Treatywhich urges young Māori to remember their Māoritanga.
Then, on Urban Planning, she looks at what urban development has done to traditional land and the turning of the great waka Te Toki-a-Tapiri into a museum exhibit.
These are important matter but, as with Dalvanius decades ago, she wraps them up in contemporary sounds aimed at an urban audience.
With Mara TK, Lani Purkis (Elemeno P), Ruby Walsh (Lips) and others, the result is an album with its heart and soul in the past, but its thoughts and delivery in contemporary pop, drum and bass and electronica in the present.
All are possible: “I feel at home in the city, I've got my tipuna with me” she sings on Urban Planning.
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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here
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