Tikanga: Music

Modern VS Moari Music

Modern NZ Music

The modern music in New Zealand is really any type of music but the top 40 songs are mostly pop songs. Although in New Zealand they still do kapa haka which is an avenue for Maori people to express and showcase their heritage and cultural through song and dance. So i guess modern music in New Zealand can be whatever you like and want it to be.

Traditional Maori Music

Traditional Maori music, usually concludes of voices and sounds of hands and feet being moved to make a sound. Maori music and dance was used on battlefields to make peace with other Maori tribes.

Traditional Maori music can also be used for prayers. Not only can it be used to connect with the Maori gods, but also for funerals and ceremonies.

Maori Instruments

One of the pure maori inventions is called a pūtorino. A pūtorino  occurs nowhere else in Polynesia or in the world.

It is a wooden trumpet varying in length from 9 to 20 in. and has an uneven bore, swelling out to the centre and diminishing evenly towards the lower end, where the pipe is quite narrow and either completely closed or has a very small opening.

A purerehua is another traditional instrument crafted by Maoris. Usually made from wood. The purerehua is spun in circles to make awesome sounds.

Not only is the Purerehua used to make beautiful music but also to connect with spirits.

The Purerehua is usually crafted out of bones from past elders or pero meaning dog. The reason these were crafted out if bones was because they usually meant a lot to the families.

One way of keeping their elders alive at heart was to use the bones as when played the sound comes from them, there fore the elder is still making sounds.