Celebrating taonga pūoro during NZ Music Month
PŪTĀTARA. NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM COLLECTION: K.129.72/E.80.65
Throughout May, singers, songwriters, musicians, and music lovers have been celebrating Te Marama Pūoro o Aotearoa (NZ Music Month), which is why Nelson Provincial Museum decided to share the story of two very significant taonga in the museum’s collection, which show what a pūtātara (traditional Māori trumpet) might have looked like hundreds of years ago.
Ancient Māori musicians were inspired by the sounds of nature: birdsong, crashing waves and wind; and they used natural objects to re-create these sounds. Bone and wood were carved into wind instruments and humming discs. Gourds and shells were used to create ‘bells’ that produced sounds, while flax and leaves were used to bind the instruments.
Nelson is famous for being the centre of the revival of taonga pūoro – or ‘singing treasures’ as traditional Māori musical instruments are so aptly known, because of their cultural significance.
MĀNGAI. NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM COLLECTION: E.80.65
For this reason, Nelson Provincial Museum’s Kaitiaki Taonga Māori (Māori Taonga Collections Manager) Hamuera Manihera said it was fitting that Te Pupuri Taonga o Te Taiao (Nelson Provincial Museum) cares for two very significant pieces.
‘Although these two taonga did not traditionally belong together, they give you an idea of what a complete pūtātara, or traditional Māori trumpet, would have looked like, once bound together,’ said Manihera.
The first piece is a māngai (mouthpiece) that has been carved from moa bone instead of rākau (wood), which is not only extremely rare but – with the large, flightless birds known to be extinct by 1445 – also makes it extremely old.
In 1955, George Soper donated the māngai to the museum, which is an astonishing 510 years after the last moa walked on Aotearoa soil. The māngai arrived with ‘provenance’ (information about its origins) as Soper informed the museum that it has been found at Moawhitu, near Greville Harbour on D’urville Island.
‘According to experts, it is the only moa bone ever used in taonga pūoro,’ said Manihera. He added that, without the ability to travel through time, there is no way to know whether the mouthpiece was made while moa still cohabitated with Māori or whether it was made from bone that was discovered after the moa became extinct.
‘The mouthpiece is often made from wood,’ said Master carver Brian Flintoff, who is best known today for his contribution to the revival of taonga pūoro, ‘but a moa bone, also from the realm of Tāne, is a very acceptable substitute. Once I dreamt of making the māngai from a whale bone, so I’ve carved from it too.’
The second piece the museum’s collection is a tātara, a conch shell. Unlike the moa bone māngai, this tātara does not have provenance but Manihera said the fact that there are three holes drilled into the shell near its apex confirms it was, in fact, once used as a musical instrument.
The museum also knows that the tātara is a smaller NZ native conch shell (Charonia lampas rubicunda).
TĀTARA. NELSON PROVINCIAL MUSEUM COLLECTION: K.129.72
Flintoff said pūmoana is a more general term for the traditional instrument, as they are often made with a larger variety of conch shell that is washed onto beaches around Aotearoa from the Pacific Ocean, noting that several have washed up on Farewell Spit, where he also sourced the whale bone. The pūtātara is an instrument more closely tied to the moana of Aotearoa.
Taonga pūoro links present to past
The oldest Māori story about the pūtātara has been handed down from generation-to-generation as an oral creation story. In this pūrākau (Māori legend), Tāne Mahuta (the atua or god/guardian of the forest) went up to heaven to get the three baskets of knowledge and the pūtātara was played to let everyone know he’d been successful. When he descended back to earth, he left the pūtātara as a gift.
According to another pūrākau, when Tangaroa (the atua or god/guardian of the ocean) and Tāne were at war, Tangaroa presented the tātara (conch shell) to Tāne as a peace offering.
Once drilled and bound together the two main component parts represented koha from the respective Atua (gods): the tātara (conch shell) from the realm of Tangaroa and the wood or bone used to craft the māngai from the realm of Tāne Mahuta.
Traditionally, the fusing of the tātara to the māngai is undertaken by drilling holes in both pieces, then hammering pieces of wood into the recently drilled holes to lock things into place. Once this step has been completed the fused area is covered over with sap from native trees, which acts as a seal. The last step is the lashing of fibres around the shaft of the māngai to conceal the fusing. The lashing often consisted of pingao, kiekie or muka, and possibly other resources.
‘Each iwi had access to different resources,’ explained Manihera. ‘Coastal tribes would have used golden sand sedge, or pingao, which you can find on sand dunes.’
Kiekie is a woody vine, with tufts of long leaves and arguably the most valued weaving plant after muka/harakeke (flax).
When bound with a māngai, the former sea snail’s home is transformed into a musical instrument. When a taonga pūoro player blows air through the mouthpiece, the pūtātara can produce a remarkable range of sounds, which can travel many kilometres and are often described as ‘out of this world’.
‘The people of Aotearoa have long heard the roar of the pūtātara echo over the lands to signify special events,’ said Manihera.
During their travels to Te Tauihu (the top of the South Island) explorers Tasman, Cook and Bellingshausen documented its sound in their journals.
When Abel Tasman reached Te Tai Tapu (Golden Bay) in 1642, he described the sound of the pūtātara as akin to the Moorish trumpet.
In 1773, during James Cook’s second voyage into Tōtaranui (Queen Charlotte Sound), he noted the ‘hideous bellowing was all the sound that could be procured out of this instrument.’
Later, in 1820, Bellinghsausen wrote in his journal: ‘The shell horn shattered the air for some distance around.’
Flintoff said an important underlying concept of taonga pūoro to understand is that every instrument is considered as a unique as a person. The sounds that can be created from a pūtātara are equally unique; in other words, everyone has their own distinct way of playing.
‘I have my own pūtātara,’ said Manihera, ‘but each taonga has its own mita (dialect), and its own way of being played, so if you are not familiar with that taonga, it can sometimes sound like a dying elephant.’
When you play it in a wahine’s voice, the pūtātara can sound soft and harmonic, like a kōauau (flute). When you play it in Tāne’s voice, it sounds like a trumpet.
Taonga pūoro thriving today
‘We thought it would be fitting to not only celebrate these taonga tuku iho,’ said Manihera, ‘but also the practitioners that led the revitilisation of taonga pūoro, such as the late Hirini Melbourne (1949-2003) and Richard Nunns (1945-2021), and those who continue their legacy,’.
THE LATE RICHARD NUNNS WAS ONE OF THE KEY DRIVERS BEHIND THE REVIVAL OF TAONGA PŪORO. HERE HE IS PLAYING THE PŪTĀTARA (TRADITIONAL TRUMPET). PHOTO CREDIT: MARTIN DE RUYTER, STUFF
In the mid-1980s, Melbourne teamed up with Nelson-based Nunns, an ethnomusicologist and performer, and Flintoff. The trio were invited to do workshops at marae from one end of New Zealand to the other.
In 2009, Melbourne and Nunns were together inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in recognition of their contribution to the revival of interest in and understanding of taonga pūoro. That same year, Nunns and Flintoff received the Queen’s Service Medal for services to taonga pūoro.
Flintoff and Nunns not only recreated and promoted the art of taonga pūoro for more than 30 years, but they also established the Haumanu Collective, a group dedicated to spreading the knowledge about taonga pūoro.
Today, the Haumanu Collective continues to perform around the motu (country), as do Nelson-based musicians Bob Bickerton (former director of Nelson School of Music), Holly Tikao-Weir and Solomon Rahui, as well as Akaroa-based Ariana Tikau.
Nunn’s friend and former band member Moana Maniapoto, writing for the journal, E-TANGATA, described Nunns as an exceptional musician and teacher.
‘He’d taught English at Nelson College for Girls until his 50s, when he gave it up to become a full-time musician. At various times over the years, he was also the most unlikely-looking member of both of my bands: the Moahunters, and the Tribe.’
Pre-Covid, in 2018, the Nelson Provincial Museum celebrated the beginning of Matariki (the Māori New Year) with two public performances of traditional Māori musical instruments. Flintoff said there is bound to be some sort of dawn performance for this year’s Matariki.
This story was originally published in the Nelson Mail on Saturday 28th May, 2022. To view the story please click here.