Rangatahi Māori launch 'musical assault on the plague of colonisation'

Theia - a project of singer-songwriter Em-Haley Walker (Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Tīpā) alongside TE KAAHU - is releasing her emphatic protest anthem BALDH3AD! on Friday.

"BALDH3AD! is my musical assault on the plague of colonisation, which has impacted our people since the 1800s and continues to threaten our language and culture under the current government. It's an expression of seething anger but also a call to action for my fellow wāhine Māori, rangatahi Māori," she said.

"If you listen closely, you'll not only hear medieval accordions but the traditional Māori instrument, the pūtaratara, which is a conch used to signal war."

The last line, "Ka whawhai tonu mātou, ake ake" ("We will fight on, forever and ever"), is a direct quote from Tainui chief Rewi Maniapoto, who led Kiingitanga forces against the invasion of Waikato in the 1860s.

BALDH3AD! is very different to the music Walker has previously released as Theia.

"I'm just very angry at the moment," she said. "With all that's going on in the world, I felt my songwriting and lyricisim taking a new direction."

"Through BALDH3AD! I hope people are reminded of the atrocities that have occurred in our country and of the deep wounds that are now being reopened because of the actions of our current government.

"I also hope that other Māori are reminded of our power.

"If I do raise some eyebrows or if that gets anyone's hairs up - then hey, so be it, because I feel like that's the point of protest music.

"To speak Māori is political, to be Māori is political, to be indigenous is political. It just is. By the sheer fact that many systems around the world have tried to eradicate or assimilate us, and we're still here, trying to reclaim our culture and language - that in itself is political. Especially when the powers that be are actively pushing back or trying to force us into the past."

'To be Māori is a protest'

Other rangatahi Māori have also recently released political music.

In August, Payton Taplin (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Te Rarawa) released his first EP under the name Greatsouth.

The songs are louder, and more impassioned, than his work as FABLE.

"To be Māori is a protest," he told RNZ's The Sampler. "Māori have always had to fight for their rights. If you think of Whina Cooper, and all of the great rangatira that have started all these amazing initiatives for Māori - the land marches, the foreshore seabed - all that stuff is off the back of Māori protests. Protesting to be themselves in their own whenua.

"There's always an element of that within all Aotearoa Māori art, and it's definitely raised and amplified in this project.

"I'd say to be Māori is to fight for your existence," he added.

Taplin said the EP was a bridge from the progressive RnB sound of FABLE to the guitar-based indie rock sound of Greatsouth.

"We're working on the next project at the moment," he said. "I'm really excited because it will probably be, for me anyway, a more accurate depiction of what Greatsouth as a Māori artist is."

Ngahiwi Apanui-Barr

Ngahiwi Apanui-Barr (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Hine, Rongomaiwāhine) has been making political music since 1982.

Apanui-Barr is one of the artists who laid the foundations of New Zealand reggae, and is one of the most prolific composers of mōteatea and contemporary Māori music.

His kaupapa Māori band Aotearoa were highly political, and played an important role encouraging people to embrace te reo and Māori culture, which is something Apanui-Barr continues to do in his role as the tumu whakahaere (chief executive) of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori - the Māori Language Commission.

Aotearoa hit the NZ Music Charts in 1985 with their single 'Maranga Ake Ai' - an anthem urging rangatahi Māori to rise up and embrace their identity.

"We had people who were really, really supportive, [but] there were others saying, 'Who the heck are these people to write about politics, and particularly about New Zealand politics? They're trite, they're stupid, and they shouldn't be singing songs like this,'" Apanui-Barr said.

"But that period, for me, was about establishing something and getting New Zealand used to things.

"None of our lyrics were about, 'Oh, you bad white people who came here and took everything from us.' It was about, 'Hey, you Māori people, you have a culture, you have an identity, you need to be proud of that, and you need to understand it.'"

In 2003, Apanui-Barr noticed his son had stopped speaking Māori to him after starting at Wellington High School.

"One day I asked him, I said, 'Look mate, he aha i mutu ai tāhau na kōrero Māori ki a Pāpā'? Why you not speaking Māori to Pāpā?' And he said to me, 'Pāpā, all the cool songs are in English, and nobody speaks Māori on TV, and when they do, they mispronounce the language.'"

Ensuring te reo Māori is part of New Zealand's culture was "really, really important" for the revitalisation of te reo Māori, he said. "That's why music is so, so critical."

Dame Hinewehi Mohi (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tūhoe) should be acknowledged for normalising te reo Māori in music, Apanui-Barr added.

Mohi was inducted into New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in May, and is best known for her double platinum album Oceania (1999) as well as performing the national anthem in te reo Māori at the 1999 Rugby World Cup.

She was instrumental in the launch and success of Waiata Anthems, which has seen a number of local artists supported to translate and perform their songs in te reo Māori.

"When Hinewehi launched the first [Waiata] Anthems album and had all those wonderful New Zealand classics on it in te reo Māori, I just about hit the roof. Because it's a big part of normalising te reo. And what we're seeing now are these amazing artists coming out," Apanui-Barr said. "It is becoming more and more acceptable for New Zealand artists to use te reo Māori in their songs. And that's the way it should be because te reo Māori is New Zealand's language."