ABSTRACT
There were a considerable cohort of Māori women at the forefront of Aotearoa/New Zealand music in the late 1980s and early 1990s, who did much to shape and progress Māori identity and cultural understanding. This was a significant era where Māori women performers and songwriters were heavily engaged in expressing a political and social commentary of this time through utilising contemporary musical styles such as hip hop, pop, jazz-folk, dance, while fusing te reo Māori (Māori language) and taonga puoro (traditional Māori indigenous instruments) in their compositions.
Waiata (sing, song, chant, psalm) has been a traditional medium through which Māori knowledge, histories, culture and language have been passed down from one generation to another (Orbell 1991; McLean 1996; Smith 2003; Ka’ai-Mahuta 2010). Waiata has traditionally been, and still remains, an artistic form to express emotion such as anger, love, sadness and desire (Ka’ai-Mahuta 2010). Traditional waiata were, and remain, an integral aspect of Mātauranga Māori (Maori knowledge and understandings) as an expression of cultural identity and a means of retention of both the knowledge and the art itself. Similarities can be observed between traditional and contemporary popular waiata, in that messages are delivered through musical, melodic, rhythmic and harmonic motifs that are distinctively Māori. Although this chapter does not look at Kapa haka Māori performing arts, it is also important to acknowledge the significant and substantial contribution of Kapa haka (Kāretu 1993; Smith 2003; Ka’ai-Mahuta et al. 2013; Papesch 2013) as a responsive expression of Māori identity, and as a performing arts practice in the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries.
The purpose of this chapter is to explore some of the more recognised popular, contemporary Māori waiata composed and performed by Māori women in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Aotearoa/New Zealand. By exploring their lyrical content and musical devices, it provides a way to illuminate significant artistic commentary by Māori women composers and performers in an expression of cultural identity and commentary on political, cultural and social issues in Aotearoa/New Zealand. For the benefit of readers, a glossary of Maori Words has been included at the end of the chapter.
