Can Maori Chant Survive? by Mervyn McLean In almost every tribal area the traditional songs or waiata of the Maori people are now being heard less and less, and competent performers are becoming fewer. One is constantly told, ‘When the old people were alive it was different, but now there's hardly anyone left.’ At tangis and huis it sometimes happens that none of the old songs is performed at all, and it is left for action songs to fill the gap. Why should this be so? And can anything be done about it? This article will examine some of the reasons for the current decline of the traditional songs, and will try to suggest remedies. At the conclusion of the article, new means will be described which are becoming available to aid the revival of the songs. That the songs are worth saving there can be no doubt. Their literary merit has been attested again and again. And it is beginning to be realised also that their musical merit is just as great.

A Number of Problems The most obvious reason for the failure of the younger generation of Maori people to learn the old songs can be found in the decline of the language itself. More and more, the language of the younger city-dwelling generation tends to be English, and with inability to speak Maori, an inability to learn the songs naturally follows. The remedy here is not difficult to find. Many young people are now gaining their first appreciation of the language through textbooks and Adult Education classes. In these classes the introduction to classical Maori is apt to be made through the texts of the traditional waiata and patere. A song is of course much more than a text, and for some people there are difficulties intrinsic to the singing style. The conventions are unfamiliar and at first the melodies sound strange. Here, reference may be made to the article, ‘The Music of Maori Chant’ which appears elsewhere in this issue. To some, lack of opportunity presents a barrier. At one time most singers picked up their songs simply by attending meetings and listening to the songs as they were performed. Nowadays, not only are the songs performed less often, but younger people, through pressure of work and other interests, have fewer opportunities to attend the meetings. As a result, the songs can seldom be learned in the old manner. If they are learned at all it is not because they are just ‘picked up’, but because a conscious effort is made to learn them and because someone has taken the trouble to teach them. The remaining difficulties in the way of the person who wishes to learn the traditional songs are nearly all concerned with custom.

Tradition Can be a Barrier It is well known that when a song is performed, it must be appropriate to the occasion. At a tangi for instance, the waiata sung will be appropriate to the dead person or will show a connection between the home tribe and the visiting tribe. Some upholders of tradition go further than this and say that a song should only be sung when there is occasion for its use. In some areas this has caused songs to die out altogether because the songs were performed so seldom that those who wished to learn them were unable to do so. If the songs still known are to survive, this is clearly one custom that will have to be modified. When the object is to learn a song there should be no barriers to performance and the occasion of teaching a song will have to be thought of as important enough to justify its performance. There are encouraging signs that such an attitude is now becoming usual. Most performers questioned by the writer said they learned their songs from individuals, and except amongst very old singers it is found that very few songs had been learnt by being simply ‘picked up’. This means that the convention restricting performance to the occasion must already have broken down to a large extent. To some, superstition is a barrier. In a few areas, memory lapses are still regarded as a sign of death or disaster, and some young people say they would sooner not try to learn