TIKI
After the 2004 Tsunami I started asking a lot of questions about the world, our environment and about myself. I really felt the anger and rage Tangaroa had towards mankind as we have shown no respect for the ocean and its inhabitants, and for this I feel sad and ashamed. I wanted to write a piece of music that embodied that aggression and power, something that could be felt on many levels. Tangaroa was born.
My dad, Uekaha Taane Tinorau, really brought Tangaroa alive with his haka/chant that we recorded in his lounge in Christchurch, thus becoming the first musical collaboration between father and son. Since then, Tangaroa has opened and revealed so many emotions, so many stories, so many images for me that I had to shoot a video for this powerful piece of music.
There is the story of Papatuanuku (Earth Mother) and Ranginui (sky father) being separated by Tanemahuta (god of the forest) thus throwing us into the world we now know - Te Ao Marama (world of light). The story of how moko (maori tattoo) has come to us as a gift from Tangaroa. The story of being spiritually sick and lost, asking for help and guidance, acknowledging the oppressor, facing your demons, accepting the challenge, and liberating your wairua and spirit to become a better person, a better soul.
Every one will see and take something different from Tangaroa. Some will feel empowered and inspired, some will feel frustrated and challenged, and some will feel nothing at all, and that’s ok as we are all at different parts of the journey. It is up to the viewer in how deep they would like to take it, and if you are like me, then it is all the way!
Tangaroa has become a catalyst for change within my life. It has become a tool to help unlock and understand the past present and future.
Ko Papatuanuku me Ranginui nga matua o te ao
I puta mai nga tamariki nga Atua o te ao
He Atua o te moana
Ko Tangaroa he Atua o te moana
Tu mai te ihi
Tu mai te wehiwehi
Tu mai te wanawana e
Hi ha aue
From the divine heartbeat of Mother Earth and the ever-elusive constant of Sky Father
all descend and all ascend the natural world
The timeless current of tranquil stillness
the harmonic music of ones infinite ocean
Resilient are the vital influences of the universe
Stand liberated by the inner radiance
Be still be silent and all shall be revealed
Na Uekaha nga kupu Maori, na Tamiaho te whakapakehatia
UEKAHA
The words came to be, as often the best things do, from a spark of inspiration at an unrelated event.
A few years back, I was attending a 3-day seminar about “wairua” with my partner Simone, and we were busy creating a waiata that we could perform together as part of a production at the very end. Simone came up with some beautiful kupu about Taane Mahuta, Tangaroa, Tawhirimatea, and Rongomatane and I put a waiata together inspired by her whakaaro about these concepts. This is a way that we often work together; we co-create, build, and layer concepts and sounds.
So when Tiki came to me with some beats and asked me to put something together I adopted the same process…although at first I wasn’t sure if I liked what he had given me to work with! It was so different to anything I had heard before…my first thoughts were – freaky! It sounds like some techno seagulls! How can I put some wairua into these sounds which were so foreign to me? I was afraid to get out of the box I had put myself in and create something so different to anything I had done before.
As Tiki and I talked things started to reveal themselves to me – Tiki talked at length about the profound experience he had when he went to Rarotonga, the launch place of the great Tainui waka, and his journey tracing its path to Kawhia, which coincided with the tragedy of the Indonesian tsunami. He talked of the extremes of emotion he felt during the trip, of moodiness, anger, and a rawness to his soul that previously he had worked hard to ignore.
The proposed collaboration between us could not have taken place without both of us being prepared to lay something bare.
When I listened again to the beats I put aside my inhibitions – and I heard the haka beat properly – the 1-2-3 1-2-3 of the waltz and the haka, the heartbeat of human consciousness, the primeval sounds of the cosmos and of nature….and I found wairua. I turned the words of our waiata into a mantra – tu mai te ihi, tu mai te wehi, tu mai te wanawana…together with this I put our shared concerns for the environment, for the forces of nature, and our coexistence with the demigods and kaitiaki we share Te Ao Marama with.
Originally I had thought that my whakaaro and the music were diametrically opposed…but through the process discovered the link was my son and his journey, and my aroha for him. He gave me the way in.
With a haka the beat must be right, it’s all about the timing, the flow and weave of words and sounds…and so I acknowledge the beautiful kupu that Simone has given me, and the korero of Tikis journey and the beats he had created, and everything I bring with my own stories, and here we are now. Tangaroa.
-Uekaha Taane Tinorau
