Established Reputation

Te Ao Hou, March 1963, Page 6

Established Reputation About a year ago the Club had the opportunity of taking over the lease of a large cabaret right in the centre of the city. The price asked for the goodwill was extremely high, and the rent presented a further obstacle, but the older members got together, formed the Club into an Incorporated Society and undertook the liability. They've worked very hard, and managed to meet their obligations. Most of the money they've raised has come out of their own pockets, and certainly from their own efforts. There has been no outside assistance from any source. They have had their reward in seeing the Club's reputation established and spreading. Their concert tours, their appearance on maraes in many parts of the North Island, and their two successful records, have made the name of the Waihirere Maori Club widely and favourably known. They have played a prominent part in the Maori world of their own city and district. When a Maori welcome for visitors was desired, whether for Governor-Generals, Ministers of the Crown, or overseas sports teams such as the Lions, the Springboks, the Australian Rugby team and the Indian and Fiji hockey teams, there have been few occasions when the Club has not turned out to assist those organising the functions by giving a true Maori flavour to the entertainment. It is this long and unbroken period of keeping their Maoritanga alive, and of affording to so many young people the opportunity of acquiring and perfecting a knowledge of traditional and modern Maori entertainment, which not only led to their being offered the honour of providing the Maori entertainment for Her Majesty at the recent Waitangi Celebrations, but which made it possible for them to accept the offer. They accepted it with humility and some misgivings, knowing that they were being given the honour of representing Maoridom and that the mana of all the Maori people was in their keeping. Having accepted the invitation the Waihirere Maori Club set to with determination—and the term ‘grim’ determination was very often an apt one. Three to four nights a week, three to four hours a night, sometimes longer they practised. All their old members within the district rallied round and their practising average was between a hundred and a hundred and twenty. There were new songs to be learned; new tunes specially composed by Bill Kerekere for the occasion, new words, new actions. The choice of the Club to represent Maoridom at Waitangi was not, at the time perhaps, a very popular one for many reasons. But those who remember the fine presentation they made before Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh and who know that such meticulous presentation can come only from hours and hours of arduous practice, from the shelving of other interests including a good deal of family life, from inspiration and devotion, will agree that, if it was not the only choice, it is a choice that has been fully justified by events. Various aspects of Maori health are being studied in a survey being undertaken by the Wellington Hospital medical unit survey team at Tikitiki, about 90 miles north of Gisborne, among people of the Ngati Porou tribe. The unit's aim is to find out more about different aspects of Maori health, looking particularly at problems related to nutrition, heart disease, gout and diabetes. A similar survey was undertaken at Ruatahuna in the Urewera country last year. The Committee responsible for arrangements at Tikitiki comprises the Reverend K. Paenga, Mesdames T. Taiapa and Hine Weka, and Messrs S. Goldsmith, L. Waikari and M. Karaka.