THE NATIONAL BAND OF NEW ZEALAND

Te Ao Hou, December 1966, Page 59

THE NATIONAL BAND OF NEW ZEALAND H.M.V. M.C.L.P. 6204 12 in. 331/3 L.P. There is only a single track featuring Maori music on this record. It consists of what are described as ‘traditional’ poi tunes—Haere ra e Hine ki Rotorua, Haere haere ra e Hine and Poi Waka to be specific—sung to band accompaniment by the Aotearoa Maori Group which performed with the band on its tour of U.S.A. and Canada in 1965. With the band accompaniment the songs sound like revivalist hymns roared out at a street corner meeting rather than ‘traditional’ Maori anything. Six strong Maoris are no match for a 60-strong band and the xylophone and the B flat bass win the unequal contest hands down. All that can be heard from the singers are a few high-pitched yelps as they struggle gamely but unsuccessfully for a hearing. It symbolises rather pathetically the engulfment of Maori culture by that of the Pakeha. Alas! ‘He kapara miti hinu.’