Photographs by Ans Westra The Hi-Fives can already claim to be New Zealand's most successful entertainment group—Maori or Pakeha—ever to travel overseas. THE HI-FIVE STORY Overseas Fame in Three Short Years Three years ago, nobody had ever heard of them. Now they are internationally famous in their field. It is hardly usual for a group of unknown entertainers to break through to the big time in three short years—especially when their starting point is a country so removed from the centres of sophisticated night-club entertainment as New Zealand. But the Hi-Fives have certainly made it. Their show is an exhilarating, dazzling affair, with a polish, pace, and perfection of timing that must have been a quite new experience to many in their New Zealand audiences. Their recent tour of New Zealand is their first time home in three years' climb to the top. In the meantime they have been a tremendous success in Australia, Britain, Europe and America. They have been seen on television by something like 150,000,000 people in ten countries have topped the bill in dozens of theatres and clubs, and have performed for Princess Margaret and European royalty. They have also ‘sold’ New Zealand—and incidentally the Maori people—to overseas audiences on a scale that would make any public relations expert boggle. It all started when Wes Epae from Taranaki, King Solomon (‘Solly’) Pohatu from Gisborne, Robert Hemi from the Wairarapa, and Paddy Te Tai from Auckland met up together in Wellington. They formed a group, played at some local dances, and then added a fifth member to the combination—Kawana Pohe. Like the others, Kawana was 21 years old, and he was going blind. He was already blind in one eye, and was rapidly losing the sight of the other. He had been told that the only chance of saving his sight would be an operation, an expensive one, which could only be performed in England.

Plenty of Talent At this time Kawana, who comes from Putiki at Wanganui, was attending a school for the blind in Wellington, learning to be a piano tuner. Like the others, he had plenty of talent, and was a versatile instrumentalist, playing the saxophone, clarinet, piano, bass and guitar.