Puoro in the City

We're in Te Whanganui-a-Tara to meet three wāhine who work with taonga puoro. We ask why these taonga almost disappeared and what their dreams are for the future of the practice.

In episode one, we're in Te Whanganui-a-Tara to meet three wāhine who work with taonga puoro (traditional Māori musical instruments). We ask why these taonga almost disappeared and what their dreams are for the future of the practice.

Episode one of He Kākano Ahau: Wawatatia expands upon the common misconceptions of the roles that atua wāhine played in our pūrākau and origin narratives, both of taonga puoro and other instruments of traditional Māori existence.

The members of Maianginui discuss the challenges involved when carving out spaces for wāhine Māori in music and the various other art communities.

It is apparent that there is still mahi needed surrounding the erasure of atua wāhine and wāhine Māori in te ao hurihuri. It is an episode that speaks to the mana of wāhine and the continual results of collective radical dreaming and imagining. This podcast is proof of what can happen when we dream and continue dreaming together for each other.

by Briar Pomana

There's not much that can't be fixed with a good cup of tea and a chat with the Aunties. A kitchen table with an assortment of slices and a few sprawled packets of biscuits is a common occurrence in ngā kainga Māori.

Women with loud laughs and tales that stretch over the entire afternoon bring with them comfort and languages rarely heard elsewhere. This is very much the vibe of He Kākano Ahau: Wawatatia episode one.

Khali Materoa, Ruby Solly, Ariana Tikao and Te Kahureremoa Taumata make up the taonga puoro collective, Maianginui. Their mahi revolves around reclaiming and re-centring mana wāhine and atua wāhine, many of whom have been disregarded or forgotten altogether as a direct result of colonisation.

Episode One begins with three of these wāhine as they take listeners on a journey of meditation and re-indigenisation through the art of whakapapa, storytelling and taonga puoro.

So we begin the season in Te Whanganui-a-Tara where Maianginui, formed in 2020, are decolonising the way we interpret many of our pūrākau and narratives using and surrounding taonga puoro.

These traditional instruments made from wood, stone, clay, bone and other naturally derived materials were once habitually used for a range of purposes until the 1907 Tohunga Suppression Act brought about their near disappearance. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details