This song was first performed at the great Ngarimu memorial hui on October 6, 1943. On that occasion, tribes from all over New Zealand gathered on the marae of the Ngati Porou people in the shadow of towering Mt. Hikurangi - said to be the first point in the British Empire to be touched by the rising sun each day. The occasion was to pay tribute to the memory of 2nd Lieutenant Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu, the Maori Victoria Cross winner).

The hui took place at Whakarua Park, Ruatoria, a small township 80 miles north of Gisborne, near Ngarimu's birthplace.

When Sir Cyril Newall, the Governor-General, presented the posthumous V.C. to Mr Hamuera Ngarimu, Moana Ngarimu's father, it was a proud moment for the Maori people. Yet it was a pride tinged with sadness for even as they rejoiced they remembered also all those who had fallen.

E te Hokowhitu-a-Tu was not originally conceived for this occasion. Tuini Ngawai wrote it over a two-year period. She shelved it several times and then finally completed it in a three-minute burst. In the middle of the song the tune and rhythm change abruptly and there follows a short lament for the hero Ngarimu.

Lt. Moana-nui-A-Kiwa Ngarimu VC

Moana-nui-A-Kiwa Ngarimu, (1918-43) born at Kokai Pa, near Ruatoria, was the only full Maori to have won the Victoria Cross during World War Two.

In March 1943, over a period of 24 hours at Tebaga Gap in Tunisia, Second Lieutenant Ngarimu and his platoon attacked and held a hill which enabled the Germans to fire on other units of the New Zealand Division.

Greatly outnumbered, he and the few surviving members of his platoon actually met a German attack by charging them, and Lt. Ngarimu died leading the charge with his his sub-machine gun still firing from the hip. Full details are at the Dictionary of NZ Biography's Ngarimu page.

Tuini Ngawai

Tuini Moetu Hāngu Ngawai, Ngati Porou, was born in 1910. Te Ra Haangu Ngawai, a farmer, and his wife Te Ipo already had six children when Te Ipo, finding she was again pregnant, visited the tohunga of the Ringatu church to seek the customary blessing. He foretold that her child would be especially gifted in some form of leadership. Te Ipo found that she was bearing twins, and wondered which baby would respond to the tohunga’s prophecy. Two girls were born, Moetu Haangu and Te Huinga; the second-born child lived for just twelve months, so the words of the tohunga were seen to concern the older child. To impress upon her that she was one of twins she was given the name Tuini (twin).

Tuini Ngawai was educated at a local native school during the First World War. She found it difficult at first because spoken Maori was banned from the school grounds, but before long she was fluent in English, and found that her two languages enriched and strengthened her. When she was 14 her mother put to music a song Tuini had written. It was a love song, and the poetry of the words impressed all who heard it.

Her first song to attract wide attention was written when she was 20. It was ‘He nawe kei roto.' This so impressed Apirana Ngata that he had Tuini sing it at the opening of the carved meeting house Te Hono ki Rarotonga at Tokomaru Bay in January 1934. The song took on and soon spread through Ngati Porou and her reputation as a song-writer was made.

From that time on Tuini worked constantly at song-writing. Other well-known songs she wrote before 1939 include ‘Awhitia au’, ‘Ma te aha ra e tama’, and ‘Mai nga ra o mua e Ari’, which commemorates the Lady Arihia Ngata hockey trophy.

After training in Auckland as a schoolteacher she returned to the East Coast in 1939 to write recruiting songs for the Maori Battalion, often using the melodies of popular songs from America. it was during the war that Tuini wrote many of her finest songs, including a farewell, ‘Haere ra e Roa’, composed for her sister Materoa, who had joined the army.

Then in 1940 she wrote Arohaina mai, following a church service for the Maori Battalion. This was regarded by many as her masterpiece and an outstanding classic of Maori songwriting; it caused Ngata to hail Tuini as a composer of genius. The song was sung during a farewell to the Maori Battalion, and it became their unofficial hymn. Other songs connected with the war included E Te Hokowhitu-a-Tu, Nga Rongo, Ngarimu, and many others.

In 1946 she became a shearing supervisor, gifted in entertaining and teaching the shearers by way of improvising new lyrics at evening singalongs, the words often containing a mixture of Maori, English, and diddley words.

As a supervisor and soon proved herself to be an extremely capable one. She was a perfectionist and insisted that everyone who worked with her should do the best job that could possibly be done. During her shearing years she wrote many of the shearing songs that are still sung on the Coast and which are among the greatst of all Maori folk songs.

In these songs her genius took a different tack. Her earlier songs were pure poetry, emotive and spiritual, but the shearing songs were written to soften the monotony and hard life of the sheds.. They made fun of all connected with the sheds, the shearers, fleecos, cooks, bosses, taxi-drivers... “Big Ben” “What a Dopey Gang” “Hupeke Gang” are still famous.

From 1953 Tuini entered her senior cultural group in the Maori cultural competitions held in Gisborne. Tuini wrote many songs for these events, including ‘Piki mai kake mai’, to commemorate the ancestor for whom the competitions were named. Tuini and Te Hokowhitu-a-Tu sang her song ‘Te Tiriti o Waitangi’ before Queen Elizabeth II during her tour of 1953­54; another famous song of the 1950s was ‘Nau mai, haere mai’, written to welcome the 1956 Springboks.

In 1965 Tuini Ngawai fell ill with cancer, and she died at Tokomaru Bay on 12 August. She was buried at Ngaiopapa, Tokomaru Bay. Tuini left behind a rich legacy of songs and an unsurpassed standard of composition, work and community leadership.

This link will take you to a full biography of Tuini Ngawai at the Dictionary of NZ Biography site.

Book References

Tuini; Her Life and Her Songs Hokowhitu-a-Tu, Tokomaru Bay 1985
Gordon Spittle Counting the Beat, A History of New Zealand Song GP Publications 1997
The Dictionary Of New Zealand Biography Volume 5 (1941-1960) Ed: Claudia Orange
and its companion Maori-language volume
Nga Tangata Taumata Rau 1941-1960

Tune: In The Mood

E te Hokowhitu-a-Tu was written to the tune of Glenn Miller's big band tune In the Mood which by 1940 rose to number one on the pop charts.

Later some romantic words were added to the rousing Miller band tune but the sentiments expressed in this later version were quite different from the sentiments of the Maori version.

Who's the lovin' daddy with the beautiful eyes What a pair o' lips, I'd like to try 'em for size I'll just tell him, "Baby, won't you swing it with me" Hope he tells me maybe, what a wing it will be So, I said politely "Darlin' may I intrude" He said "Don't keep me waitin' when I'm in the mood" In the mood, that's what he told me In the mood, and when he told me In the mood, my heart was skippin' It didn't take me long to say "I'm in the mood now"

Other Tuini Ngawai songs

He nawe kei roto

This love song was composed by Tuini Ngawai. The year 1931.

He nawe kei roto i o mahara Kel roto i o tikanga e hine e. Tuakina mai e hine kia kite atu au Me he mea he aroha ka mutu pea. Ka hoki whakamuri nga whakaaro Ki o taua haeretanga e hine e Ko te ra i te rangi to rite ki ahau Ma wai koe e whai atu ma te aroha e.

Ka haere te wa a ka pa mai te aroha ki a Tuini. E rua tekau pea tona pakeke i taua wa. Ka noho noa iho ko nga whakaaro kei pamamao ke e rere haere aria. Ka korerorcro ratou mo a ratou whaialpo, ka whakapuaki i nga korero a a ratou whaiaipo ki a ratou. Ka rongo ahau i a ia e whakatu aria i nga korero me nga mahi a nga maia nei ki a ia. Ko tenei wahanga i korerotia e ia ki a matou. E ki aria tana whaiaipo "Ko te ra i te rangi to rite ki ahau, Aria ko te waiata i runga ake nei.

Mai Nga Ra 0 Mua E Ari

Composed in April 1935 for the national Maori women's hockey championships held at Ruatoki. Tuini portrays Lady Alice Ngata as someone very dear to her. And Tuini urges the other teams to play their best, even though she had her own team, Marotiri.

Mai nga ra o mua e Ari Ki tenei ra E rapa ana ahau i a koe Kei whea ra? Ae ko to wairua kei roto Tuhoe Ko te tinana kei roto Waiapu, Aue ra te aroha nui e Ari e. Tu ake ra Porourangi ki te whawhai Mo Arihia, mo te Reiri Kia kaha ra Ko au nei ko, Marotiri Ka tarai me kore ra au e A, whiwhi ki te tohu aroha e Ari e E tangi ra Marotiri

From the beginning, Ari to this day I've looked for you Where are you? Your spirit is in Ruatoki Although your remains lie at Waiapu Oh how I love you Arihia. Stand up Porourangi And fight For the lady Arihia Play the game. As for me, in Marotiri team I will try my best To win the trophy of love Arihia I weep for Arihia my Superior.

E Te Ope Tuatahi

E te ope tuatahi O te ropu Maori e, Haere mai ki te hui o Ngarimu e. Chorus: I te wa o te oranga Kei te piri tahi e, No te matenga ka mokemoke e.	Company number one of the Maori battalion, Welcome to the hui, for Ngarimu. Chorus: In times of wellbeing there's clinging together, at the hour of death the loneliness oh.
I hinga mai i Tunihia, Ka ara mai i Tunihia, Ko te tohu nui, Ko te wikitoria!	He fell in Tunisia, when he rose in Tunisia it made a great mark it was a victory.

Te Hokowhitu Toa

Te hokowhitu toa Mauria atu ra Te pueru o koutou tipuna e (Te mana me te wehi e Te mana me te wehi e) Hei hoa ki tawhiti nui Ki tawhiti pamamao, Aue! Aue! te aroha E ngau kino nei, Otira i tenei wa Haere ra! Ma te kingi o nga kingi! Koutou e manaki e Ko te tangi tenei a te ngakau e.

Twenty times seven braves take away hence the capes of your ancestors - (he awe and the power, the awe and the power) - as your protectors, to the great far-away to the far-away infinite. Oh, Oh, the painful love bites deeper inside me, but, now, farewell! To the King of Kings this is your homage-rendering, this is the heart keening.

E Nga Rangatahi

E nga rangatahi O Aotearoa Kohikohihia Nga purapura I mahue ake I nga tupuna, He karauna Maoritanga Ki te ao Puritia e nga iwi Ahakoa Tangaroa. Ma te maia, ma te kaha, Ka tutuki nga wawata e. He aha te painga Ki nga matua, Ki te kore rawa Tohutohungia Ki te reo Maori? E ara taki Te karauna Maoritanga Ki te ao.

Oh youth of Aotearoa may the seeds our ancestors left behind them be gathered in - a crown of Maoritanga for the world. May the people persevere in spite of Tangaroa. Through bravery, through strength men's desires are fulfilled. What satisfaction would the old people have if there was absolutely no instruction in the Maori tongue? Make a path for the crown of Maoritanga in the world!

What A Dopey Gang

What a dopey gang mo te huke all the time Kia boomerang ka karanga ki nga fleecos Mauria mai he tar kua motu a blue eye. Harry hooping cough Noel Raihania is just behind you Whakarukea te taera a Jim Tawhai Aue rising fast haere ki te whakanga. Hefty Maori boss kia puta stormy weather He tangamanawa mo te tinana from bending Karangatia ra he taxi cab mo home sweet home. Riwai glance around he tukati on the floor Hurry hurry up Pat Parata kei die in hole Hey get off your whero kutia te rua ran. Johnny B.B.C champion mo te strum i raro Ka perehi mai ka kohete a Joe gumboot Kua buckle up nga mahara o poor me (Tuini), ...three more verses, ending ...Merry Christmas Ben Happy New Year to you all

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Published March 31, 2001, Extra songs and biographical material added June 2003, Aug 2006