Tuini Ngawai

Ngāti Porou

1910 - 1965

Tuini Ngawai was a composer of waiata; her complete works comprise over three hundred songs. She wrote her first song "He Nawe Kei Roto" in 1933; this song was a conversation between lovers. In 1936 she formed the Hokowhitu Atu Māori Cultural Club; in 1939, the club farewelled the C Company Ngāti Porou soldiers of the Māori Battalion at Tokomaru Bay. Her song "for that occasion was ‘Arohaina Mai’, one of her best known compositions. Tuini wrote her last song during a period of ill-health, for the Māori reception to the 1965 Springboks at Gisborne." Tuini based "her style of action songs on the tradition made by Sir Apirana Ngata, Paraire Tomoana and others who developed modern action song in the beginning of this century." "Tuini’s great contribution as a composer of war-time songs, classics of language and style, and of folk-music peculiar to the rural East Coast of her generation would live forever. Tuini composed some 300 songs, many of them classics. Her compositions comprise action songs and songs of lament, love, war and comedy."

Biographical sources

  • Te Ao Hou 14 (1956): 46-50.
  • "He Nawe Kei Roto." Te Ao Hou 53 (1965): 64
  • Te Ao Hou 55 (1966): 37-38.

    Music

  • "Te Hokowhitu Toa." Supplement to the Souvenir of the Ngarimu Victoria Cross Investiture Meeting: and Reception to His Excellency the Governor General Sir Cyril Newall. Whakarua Park, Ruatoria, N.Z.: n.p., 6 Oct. 1943. Rpt. in Te Ao Hou 14 (1956): 50.
  • This action song was ‘a favourite with C Company of the Māori Battalion, and rendered by them at an unforgettable concert in Palmerston North, N.Z. prior to the Battalion going overseas (May, 1940)." [Supplement to the Souvenir of the Ngarimu Victoria Cross Investiture Meeting]. An English translation of this song "The Brave Band of Tu", is also included in the Supplement.
  • "Arohaina Mai, E Te Kingi Nui." Supplement to the Souvenir of the Ngarimu Victoria Cross Investiture Meeting: and Reception to His Excellency the Governor General Sir Cyril Newall. Whakarua Park, Ruatoria, N.Z.: n.p., 6 Oct. 1943. An English translation, "Great King! Bestow Thy Love!" is included in the Supplement. Rpt. in Te Ao Hou 14 (1956): 49. Rpt. with diagrammed actions in Māori Action Songs. Alan Armstrong and Reupena Ngata. Wellington, N.Z.: Reed, 1960. 78-81. Rpt. as "Arohaina Mai/Great King." Trans. Margaret Orbell. The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse. Ed. Ian Wedde and Harvey McQueen. Introd. and Notes by Ian Wedde and Margaret Orbell, consultant to the editors. Auckland, N.Z.: Penguin, 1985. 188-189.
  • A call in Māori with English translation for the ‘Great king’s’ blessing and protection over ‘the warrior band of Tu!", and for all of Māoridom to ‘Hold fast to our great name!/Proclaim as did our ancestors/Tihe mauri ora, words of power!"
  • "Te Moana Nui A Kiwa!" Supplement to the Souvenir of the Ngarimu Victoria Cross Investiture Meeting: and Reception to His Excellency the Governor General Sir Cyril Newall. Whakarua Park, Ruatoria, N.Z.: n.p., 6 Oct. 1943. English translation also included in the Supplement
  • "E Te Hokowhitu A Tu." Te Ao Hou 14 (1956): 50. Rpt. in Māori Action Songs. Alan Armstrong and Reupena Ngata. Wellington, N.Z.: Reed, 1960. 81-85.
  • The notes in Māori Action Songs state that this ‘was first performed at the great Ngarimu memorial hui on October 6, 1943. On that occasion, tribes from all over New Zealand gathered on the marae of the Ngāti Porou people in the shadow of towering Mt. Hikurangi - said to be the first point in the British Empire to be touched by the Rising sun each day. The occasion was to pay tribute to the memory of 2nd Lieutenant Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu, the Māori Victoria Cross winner. The hui took place at Whakarua Park....[This song] was not originally conceived for this occasion. Tuini Ngawai wrote it over a two-year period. She shelved it several times and then finally completed it in a three-minute burst. She chose a popular European song of the day to accompany it but in the middle of the song the tune and rhythm change abruptly and there follows a short lament for the hero Ngarimu.’ In Māori Action Songs diagrammed actions accompany the melody and text of the song (Māori Action Songs: 81-82].
  • "E Te Ope Tuatahi." Te Ao Hou 14 (1956): 49-50.
  • This song, written in Māori with an English translation, welcomes the Number One Company of the Māori Battalion to the Ngarimu meeting and pays tribute to Ngarimu falling in Tunisia.
  • "E Nga Rangatahi." Te Ao Hou 14 (1956). 50.
  • A song in Māori with English translation urging the youth of Aotearoa to gather in and treasure the heritage and language of the Māori tupuna - to persevere and to ‘[m]ake a path / for the crown of Māoritanga / in the world!’
  • "He Nawe Kei Roto." 1933. Te Ao Hou 53 (1965): 64.
  • This song was performed informally at the opening of To o te Tonga meeting house at Tokomaru Bay.
  • "Nga Rongo/The news." Trans. Kumeroa Ngoingoi Pewhairangi. The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse. Ed. Ian Wedde and Harvey McQueen. Introd. and Notes by Ian Wedde and Margaret Orbell, consultant to the editors. Auckland, N.Z.: Penguin, 1985. 189-190.
  • A poem articulating the purposelessness of war and an exhortation to ‘the sons of Tu’ to ‘Be strong, be strong!’
  • "Tuini Ngawai degli Ngāti Porou/Tuini Ngawai of Ngāti Porou." Te Ao Marama: Il mondo della luce: Il Cinema della Nuova Zelanda. A cura di (curated by) Jonathan Dennis e Sergio Toffetti. Torino, 1989. 22.
  • Ngawai’s waiata "Te matauranga o te Pakeha/Pakeha knowledge/ is propagated" is reproduced here in Italian, Māori and English versions. In this song Ngawai warns of the pitfalls of Pakeha knowledge which ‘sucks you in then confiscates land....dispenses social security benefits [in order]To suppress customary ways, / to confuse us, / to kill our spirit’.

    Other

  • "Tuini Ngawai." Te Ao Hou 14 (1956): 46-48.
  • Pewhairangi, Ngoi. Tuini: Her Life and Songs. Gisborne, N.Z.: Te Rau, 1985.
  • "Tuini Ngawai Memorial." Te Ao Hou 55 (1966): 36-38.
  • "Hui Commemorates Tuini Ngawai." Tu Tangata 1 (1981): 3.
  • "Haere Ki O Koutou Tipuna." Te Ao Hou 53 (1965): 64.