Review by Chris Reed at www.nzbooklovers.co.nz
In literary terms, the significance of Ngā Mōteatea is immeasurable. It is both archive and inspiration, preserving fragile taonga while encouraging ongoing creative practice. For scholars, it offers material of remarkable depth. For students of te reo, it provides language in its richest form. For performers, it supplies songs with enduring mana. For general readers, it opens a path into the emotional and imaginative world of Māori culture.
This edition honours Ngata’s original vision while embracing the needs of modern readers. It is authoritative, accessible and profoundly moving, a work that not only safeguards the past but also invites new generations to engage with the poetic soul of Aotearoa. A great moment of cultural understanding and reckoning.
The definitive treasury of Māori waiata, preserving the essence of language, culture and soul in Aotearoa.
Over a period of forty years Sir Apirana Ngata, distinguished leader and scholar, collected and recorded hundreds of songs and chants from the iwi of Aotearoa, which became the four volumes of Ngā Mōteatea, with translations and annotations by Ngata and Pei Te Hurinui Jones.
This is the first volume of a new edition of this national treasure, the largest and most comprehensive collection of Māori waiata and a unique contribution to New Zealand poetry. It is a rich resource for continuing research and scholarship in many fields, offers prime texts in the teaching of Māori language, literature and tribal history and serves as inspiration for contemporary composition and performance.
In 2005, this landmark edition was completely redesigned and republished in association with the Polynesian Society, preserving the integrity of Ngata and Jones’ original work while updating typography and language conventions, correcting errors, and adding macrons for modern usage.
The edition also includes two audio CDs of selected waiata from the Archive of Māori and Pacific Music at the University of Auckland, bringing the voices of the ancestors to life.
Author ; Sir Apirana Ngata (Ngāti Porou, 1874–1950) was the leading Māori figure of his day, a land reformer, politician and scholar. He made a vital contribution to the revival of Māori culture in the early years of the twentieth century and is the subject of a biography by Ranginui Walker.
Translator: Pei Te Hurinui Jones (Ngāti Matakore, 1898–1976) was brought up in the southern King Country by his maternal great-uncle Te Hurinui Te Wano and was ideally qualified to pursue his lifelong interest in oral history of his mother’s people. He was a prolific writer in te reo Māori and a leading authority on Tainui traditions.
Hardback, 464 pages