Te Ha Oranga join with police to sing waiata for change

Taniora Tauariki (centre) and Senior Constable Rowena Jones (right) were among those who were singing for change in Kaitaia last week.

A He Waka Eke Noa/Let's Make a Change CD was launched at the Kuia/Kaumatua Matariki Ball in Dargaville last month.

And last week work continued on the next step, a music video, filmed in Kaitaia, Rawene, Kaikohe and Kawakawa.

He Waka Eke Noa is the treatment roopu (group) through which Taniora Tauariki and addictions counsellor Steward Eiao deliver drug addiction recovery to Te Ha Oranga clients in Auckland. A big part of recovery is getting clients to create expressive art, especially waiata.

He Waka Eke Noa (a canoe that everyone is in, with no exception) bases the recovery stage of a person's life around rebuilding personal, emotional and spiritual identity. Kapa haka, waiata and learning pepeha (lineage) are a major part, and recording the CD was therapeutic for clients who had lost connection to their culture when addiction took over.

Recorded at Silverpoint Studios in Silverdale, some songs on the CD are in te reo Maori, some in English.

The eight tracks cover musical genres from himene (hymns) to waiata to rap to haka to gospel, sometimes within the same song, featuring rousing choruses about overcoming challenges, designed to empower both the performers and the audience.

"Who better to tell that message than the people who have already done it?" Taniora asked.

At one point during the recording around 30 members of the roopu packed into the studio to record prayer, haka and their group song, an empowering approach that had enabled some He Waka Eke Noa clients to regain their children, some going full circle and now working for Te Ha Oranga.

Taniora said his own situation had provided the inspiration to start writing motivational music.

"I got sick and tired of family members being stuck in this loop of using, addiction, abuse. I'd just had enough," he said.

"I saw my younger siblings heading down that path. So we started singing our own stuff.

That's when the journey for us began. You have to start cleaning your own back yard before you start sharing a message. You've got to start being the change, personally."

The Let's Make A Change message coincided with the Te Ara Oranga message when Taniora and his team encountered a community meth resilience hui at Dargaville Hospital earlier this year.

Participants workshopped how to spread awareness of the anti-meth message, and Taniora knew he could put his song to good use. Te Ara Oranga had the same mission as his roopu, he said, and there was no question which drug had been doing the most damage.

"Meth is definitely the drug we're seeing do the most harm in our group. It just destroys everything in its path," he said.

Northland DHB communications manager Liz Inch said a music video could work as an effective communications tool for meth reduction.

"Because it's a thread across visual, written and oral mediums, and will be useful background to radio adverts. It's also the impetus for the community to effect change."

The music video will be launched alongside the Te Ara Oranga Meth Demand Reduction Project on August 31.