{"id":1969921,"date":"2025-08-20T05:39:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T05:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1969921"},"modified":"2025-08-20T05:39:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T05:39:24","slug":"how-a-matariki-anthem-wrote-a-new-chapter-in-the-story-of-maori-country-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/how-a-matariki-anthem-wrote-a-new-chapter-in-the-story-of-maori-country-music\/","title":{"rendered":"how a Matariki anthem wrote a new chapter in the story of M\u0101ori country music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p>Matariki has come and gone for another year, but the melody still shimmers. I\u2019m referring in particular to a song released for the 2025 M\u0101ori new year: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YtBH0OIuEkc\">Matariki Hunga Nui \u2013 Calling Me Home<\/a>, by Rob Ruha, Troy Kingi and Kaylee Bell.<\/p>\n<p>Bilingual and line-dance friendly, the music video for the track featured many joining in the fun, including former politician Kiri Allan and artist-activist Tame Iti. The song brought a musical heritage back into contemporary consciousness: M\u0101ori country.<\/p>\n<p>It might not seem the most typical M\u0101ori musical genre, with rap, reggae, R&#8217;n&#8217;B and pop more usually associated with M\u0101ori creativity. But there has been a long history of <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.audioculture.co.nz\/articles\/country-aotearoa-timeline-part-two\">M\u0101ori engagement with country music <\/a> \u2013 dating back to the beginnings of popular music in Aotearoa.<\/p>\n<p>M\u0101ori musicians related to country music\u2019s lyrical themes \u2013 longing, land, rural life, loneliness, love, humour, community \u2013 and excelled at the musicianship central to its style. <\/p>\n<p>Beyond the genre aesthetics, this musical story is also entwined in colonial histories and global pop culture flows. <\/p>\n<p>Country music in the United States might currently be associated with conservative (even racist) politics, making it possibly seem an odd choice for a song <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.matariki.com\/\">celebrating an Indigenous celestial remembrance<\/a>. But country as a genre is deeply rooted in African American musical traditions \u2013 the banjo, spirituals, field songs, hymns. <\/p>\n<p>Recently, African American artists such as queer rapper Li\u2019l Nas X and Beyonc\u00e9 have challenged erroneous racial and cultural associations. The <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/6965367\/cowboy-carter-black-country-history\/\">backlash against Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s 2024 Cowboy Carter album<\/a> highlighted how many people were unaware of the musical and cultural reality of \u201cBlack Country\u201d. <\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Matariki Hunga Nui - Calling Me Home (Music Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YtBH0OIuEkc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2>The Hawaiian sound<\/h2>\n<p>American country music is also indebted to Hawaiian innovations and artists, meaning Polynesian stylistic elements were already ingrained in the country oeuvre when it arrived in New Zealand. <\/p>\n<p>The steel guitar was invented on the Hawaiian island of Oahu by Joseph Kekuku in 1885. The Spanish guitar had been introduced in the earlier 1800s and Kekuku modified the instrument (and its sound) to create the lap steel guitar. <\/p>\n<p>This became wildly popular in the mainland US during the 1920s and 30s, eventually becoming a staple sound of what became known as country music.  <\/p>\n<p>In the mid-20th century, Pacific and M\u0101ori artists in New Zealand gravitated towards this \u201cHawaiian sound\u201d. In 1949, the Ruru Karaitiana Quintette recording the first ever locally produced hit song, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bluesmokebook.wordpress.com\/2015\/05\/06\/play-it-again-jim-2\/\">Blue Smoke<\/a>, with Pixie Williams on vocals, heavily featuring Hawaiian guitar slides. <\/p>\n<p>Later, Tongan New Zealanders Bill Sevesi and Bill Wolfgramme had popular hits and successful careers with their Hawaiian sound and deft lap steel playing. <\/p>\n<p>The  shift of the steel guitar from Hawaii\/Pacific styles into local country music can be seen in <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gAO4hDPMDCo\">Manu Rere<\/a> (1955) by Johnny Cooper (who became known as \u201cthe M\u0101ori cowboy\u201d), and the humorous locally-flavoured <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/e-tangata.co.nz\/arts\/a-winning-recipe-maori-flavoured-country-music\/\">Dennis Marsh<\/a>\u2019s Have a Maori Hangi (formal release 2000). <\/p>\n<p>The <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/collections\/the-maori-show-bands\">M\u0101ori showbands<\/a> of the 1950s and 1960s performed a range of styles, including country, in high-energy, elaborate shows that toured the globe. <\/p>\n<p>Featuring M\u0101ori waiata (songs) alongside comedy, popular American tunes, soul and Hawaiian sounds, these bands generated local stars, including Prince Tui Teka. You can hear the Hawaiian-country blend in his song Mum and his rendition of Freddy Fender\u2019s When the Next Teardrop Falls.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Prince Tui Teka - Before the next teardrop falls\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CW358_yilBs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2>Creative negotiation<\/h2>\n<p>By the 1970s, M\u0101ori artists such as Eddie Low and Dean Waretini were having country-flavoured local hits, further weaving the genre into the M\u0101ori music story. <\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s impossible to even measure country\u2019s popularity in the covers band scene, school concerts, marae, pubs and homes. While not M\u0101ori themselves, queer country singing sisters The Topp Twins collaborated with M\u0101ori composer Hirini Melbourne in 1984 on Ng\u0101 Iwi E, a country song sung in te reo M\u0101ori. <\/p>\n<p>As US country music has branched into various sub-genres, from traditional Nashville and bluegrass to cowpunk, Americana and \u201cred dirt\u201d, M\u0101ori country artist Marlon Williams has embraced alternative country-and-western gothic, perhaps resonating with his own southern New Zealand roots. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to think and dream in M\u0101ori,\u201d he said of his 2025 country album Te Whare T\u012bwekaweka, sung <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/life\/music\/marlon-williams-i-want-to-be-able-to-think-and-dream-in-maori\">entirely in te reo M\u0101ori<\/a>. Of Ng\u0101i Tahu and Ng\u0101i Tai descent, Williams had been disconnected from his language, but this album saw him composing his own original <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/maoridictionary.co.nz\/search?&amp;keywords=waiata\">waiata<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>While not known specifically as a country artist, TEEKS (Te Karehana Gardiner-Toi) has a smoky, deep soul voice that evokes and embodies the M\u0101ori-country connection when he sings (check out his live 2019 cover of Bonnie Rait\u2019s I Can\u2019t Make You Love Me, for example).<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"TEEKS - \u2018I Can\u2019t Make You Love Me\u2019 Live at the Auckland Town Hall (2019)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n68UlNk2_7U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>There has been a thriving country music scene among P\u0101keha New Zealanders, too. But the M\u0101ori contribution to and enjoyment of the genre is integral to the story. That creative negotiation, between the worlds of US country and M\u0101ori waiata, lives on in Matariki Hunga Nui \u2013 Calling Me Home<\/p>\n<p>This complex American genre offers a vehicle for Aotearoa to celebrate its own heritage in the present, remember the past and plan for the future \u2026 under the Matariki stars.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source theconversation.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matariki has come and gone for another year, but the melody still shimmers. I\u2019m referring in particular to a song released for the 2025 M\u0101ori new year: Matariki Hunga Nui \u2013 Calling Me Home, by Rob Ruha, Troy Kingi and Kaylee Bell. Bilingual and line-dance friendly, the music video for the track featured many joining [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1969922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1969921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/how-a-Matariki-anthem-wrote-a-new-chapter-in-the.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1969921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1969921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1969922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1969921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1969921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1969921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}