The song of national harmony

By FRANCES GRANT

Like Waltzing Matilda moves the Aussies, the Maori love song Pokarekare Ana seems to have more power to stir feelings of patriotism and Kiwi sentimentality than the official national anthem.

While God Defend New Zealand may be the one which fills Kiwi hearts with pride when, say, there's a gold medal win involved, Pokarekare Ana seems to be the tune of choice for homesick Kiwis everywhere or just those called upon to deliver a representative New Zealand song. It's the one Maori song everybody knows.

Think of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa singing the love song a capella in Gisborne at the dawn of the new millennium, the clear tones of Hinewehi Mohi ringing it out before the big match or Sir Howard Morrison crooning through it by the shores of Lake Rotorua.

Unlike the flag-waving anthem, this song conjures up pohutukawa trees, ravishing New Zealand landscapes and that favourite perception of ourselves as warm and friendly people.

But who wrote this song which has become so firmly entrenched in the national psyche? Tonight's Documentary New Zealand goes looking for the source from which the famous love song flowed.

There are several versions of its birth. In one, it was written by Hawkes Bay Maori leader, well-known songwriter and sportsman Paraire Tomoana, to woo a Tokomaru Bay woman, Kuini, who he then married. Descendants of Tomoana put in a strong claim for this version. Grandson Tama Huata, a musician, demonstrates how the song is in accord with his grandfather's musical style.

But another version has it that it was written by Ngati Porou's Sir Apirana Ngata as a plea for his daughter to return home.

Yet another theory is that the two men, friends who had many interests in common and who were prolific song-writers, composed it together.

But the true history of the song may never be pinpointed. The programme looks at the way many Maori composers picked up popular melodies and set them to Maori words, and the custom of adding to songs in a troubadour way.

That the song was picked up by the Te Arawa concert parties of Rotorua and relocated in the lyrics from an East Cape river to Lake Rotorua (the line "nga wai o Waiapu" became "nga wai o Rotorua"), thus associating it with that tribe's great love story of Hinemoa and Tutanekai, has further clouded its origins.

The programme also looks at the various ways the song has been used: As Labour Party campaign song; as the theme for commercials for the national airline.

We hear it sung in diverse, slightly disconcerting circumstances - by a kimono-clad Japanese choir, for example.

What's missing from tonight's programme is the song's famous "squashed banana" parody. It's an odd omission for a documentary emphasising the song's integral place in Kiwi culture. Disrespectful it may be, but what stronger hallmark of an icon than the existence of a spoof version?

* Pokarekare Ana: A Maori Love Song TV One, 8.35pm