Patere

Te Ao Hou, November 1964, Page 46

Patere These fast vigorous chants with impromptu (but conventionalised) gestures and facial expressions, were occasional songs, usually composed to reply to gossip of a slanderous nature. The reply took the rather curious form, not of denying the gossip, but of recounting the lineal and lateral kinship connections of the author. The implication appears to have been that a person with such noble connections could not possibly have been guilty of the charges preferred. A patere often takes its audience on a tour of New Zealand, with introductions to the principal chiefs of the time and genealogical excursions into the past. It is at once a gazetteer and a Who's Who for the period of its composition. Interspersed with this sort of information are interesting remarks on what the singer will do to her detractors when she meets them. I should perhaps mention that all patere were composed by women.