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Te Ao Hou, December 1962, Page 25

It's an impressive sight to see an entire meeting-house travelling down the road, as this one at the Upoko-Tataia pa in the Taupo district did recently. Like many meeting-houses, it had become rather isolated when the community shifted nearer to town. So the owners of the house have moved the whole building three miles down the road to Papakai, where it will be more central and able to be used more. When Peter Blank took this photo it was about to take off on its travels—the first time, we are told, that Ngati Tuwharetoa have shifted an entire meeting-house this way. This group performing a powhiri for Lord and Lady Freyberg are in the Guildhall in London, a famous historic building which is certainly a novel background for Maori action songs. The people in the group are, left to right: front row, Luie Tawhai (from Rotorua), Margaret Moore (nee Paiki, Christchurch), Norma Morehu (Otaki), Winnie Waapu (Hastings); second row: Sam Karetu (Hastings), Cini Boynton (Waimana), Mary Peni (Pipiwai), Margaret Smith (Kohukohu), Tom Russell (Hastings). One member of the group, Ben Wanoa from Tokomaru Bay, wasn't able to be present on this occasion. The photo was sent to us by Mr Sam Karetu, the Information Officer at New Zealand House in London, who promises to keep us in touch with Maori activities in London. He says that he knows of at least 32 Maori residents in London at the moment, all of them enjoying it very much. They have formed an amateur group called the Aotearoa Maori Entertainers and have found that action songs, poi and haka are very popular with English audiences. Not everyone who would like to belong can get to practices, though, because many are nurses on night duty.

These boys watching T.V. at the Gear Meat Hostel are (left to right) Greg Howearth, Johnnie Henderson, Jack Cooper, Jack Po, Ben Ngata, and Bobby Wilson Hostel boys run their own band, the ‘Imperial Twisters’, and till recently some of them were also members of the well-known Dakotas. The three Dakotas practising here are Ben Ngatai, second sax (from Palmerston North, and staying at the hostel), with Kingi Kawai and Bill Butler (second and first guitars, both from Ruatoria) who work elsewhere, and come here to practise.