How Hinewehi Mohi uses te reo and music to bring Aotearoa together – New Zealand Herald

Rugby has played an important role in Dame Hinewehi Mohis life, and not just for that day at Twickenham during the 1999 Rugby World Cup, when she famously sang God Defend New Zealand in te reo Mori.

My father was a good rugby player and he played for Prangahau and the Te Poho o Kahungunu marae team in rural Hawkes Bay, says Mohi (Ngti Kahungunu, Ngi Thoe). He was also their coach and captain, so when they travelled to games outside the district, if they went to another marae, Dad would be pushed up the front to speak. Only, he was from that generation that hadnt been taught te reo Mori, whose parents thought their children were better off focusing on English.

Which is why, in the mid-1970s, Mike Mohi started learning te reo Mori, not only out of a sense of responsibility to his rugby team, but also to his whnau and hap. I was about 10 when Dad signed up for a correspondence course. Us kids grudgingly learned with him, although Id rather have been outside on the farm, playing with the animals or riding motorbikes.

Today, New Zealanders can mihi to Mike Mohi for his gentle insistence that Hinewehi and her two sisters learn their language. Having travelled a long road from that Prangahau farm, she is now widely acknowledged as the woman who helped merge te reo Mori with commercial music, working with contemporary artists to oversee the translation of their best-known songs into te reo Mori.

Since 2019, Mohi has spearheaded Waiata Anthems, a series of bestselling recordings featuring music by the likes of Don McGlashan, Marlon Williams, Lorde and Bic Runga. Runga re-recorded her 1997 hit, Sway, as Haere Mai R under Mohis direction, and its now the version she often sings live.

People almost dont notice that its not in English, as its still recognisable and familiar to them, says Runga. This has brought its share of tears, especially from those people whove grown up Mori but havent heard their own language in a pop music context.

To mark this years Te Wiki o te reo Mori (Mori Language Week), further additions to the Waiata Anthems series have been released on streaming platforms, accompanied by short documentaries. Among the artists are the Black Seeds, Georgia Lines and Dillastrate. With their songs translated by some of Aotearoas most eminent Mori scholars, among them Sir Tmoti Kretu and Tama Waipara, the experience has brought linguists and musicians together to celebrate our blossoming bilingual landscape.

TV and radio host Stacey Morrison is in awe of what her longtime friend has achieved and how seminal Mohis work has been. Seeing stadium crowds singing waiata anthems really brings home the impact this movement has had for our country and people, says Morrison, who is also active in promoting reo.

In Mohis childhood, there was no opportunity to hear pop music sung in te reo Mori, although the household did listen to LPs by opera star Inia Te Wiata and the Mori Chorus of the NZ Opera Company.

As the familys language skills developed, Mike Mohi decided Hinewehi should attend St Josephs Mori Girls College (Hato Hhepa) in Taradale.

Im so grateful for my time there, because Hato Hhepa was a beautiful cocoon where it was deemed wonderful to be Mori, she says. Performing in the concert party what we now call kapa haka was the greatest privilege, with younger girls learning the harmonies from the seniors, finding those wonderful high notes, to carry on the traditions.

After leaving school in the early 1980s, Mohi considered a student exchange somewhere exotic. Her father had other ideas. Dad was set on me focusing on my own language and culture, which is how I ended up doing Mori studies at Waikato University.

Coming from the protective world of a single-sex Mori Catholic boarding school, Te Whare Wnanga o Waikato proved the perfect springboard for the 17-year-old from Hawkes Bay although Mohi was astonished to discover not everyone held her culture in high esteem. If I said I was studying Mori, I was often told it wouldnt get me a job. Many people thought Mori studies was a pathway to nowhere, yet language and culture is really all Ive ever done.

Inspired by a charismatic faculty that included Kretu, fellow academics such as Wharehuia Milroy and acclaimed composer Hirini Melbourne, Mohi graduated with a bachelors degree. In 1986, she shifted to Tmaki Makaurau, the first move in what would become a stellar career in media and music. The very next year, the Mori Language Act was passed. Id never really been that political, and I certainly didnt approach issues in a way that might cause offence, but te reo Mori was incredibly important to me to my life, my career and who I am.

In Auckland, Mohi was determined to work in television, specifically on TVNZs Koha, a weekly primetime programme on te ao Mori, broadcast in English. Her persistence in canvassing the shows producers paid off. I was offered a role as a reporter, although I didnt really know what I was doing, and I made it up as I went along. But through that work, telling amazing stories about incredible people, I came to understand myself, and my place in te ao Mori. I figured out what was important to me, and what else I might do with my knowledge.

Her interest in music didnt abate. In 1992, Mohi released her first single, Kia , an evocative waiata in te reo about being steadfast and rising above adversity. I was surrounded by some very powerful people back then. I worked with people like Moana Maniapoto and Dalvanius Prime, which is how I came to understand the feistiness of their political stances, as their experiences were so different to mine.

I could also see that we were becoming leaders for our language and culture. That we were on the cusp of something really important.

Mohi continued to find success as a musician and work in television, with roles that included producing Marae for TVNZ. She married, and in 1996, Mohi and husband George Bradfield (Ngti Ranginui) had a daughter. That was the toughest time of my life, because our bubba, Hineraukatauri, was born with cerebral palsy. She couldnt eat or breathe or do anything for herself. For those first few years, we were in and out of Starship Hospital and I searched far and wide for anything that might help her.

A confluence of events took Mohi, Bradfield and Hineraukatauri to the UK three years later. Mohi was promoting her double-platinum hit record, Oceania, and the couple were keen to explore the potential of musical therapy for their daughter. Their visit coincided with the Rugby World Cup and Mohi was invited to sing New Zealands national anthem at the All Blacks match against England at Twickenham. Once again, rugby was to have a profound effect on Mohis life. I didnt know the English words off by heart this is before Google so I sang it in te reo Mori. Id sung it before like that at a Kiwis league international and had no problems, which is why I never expected the explosion it caused.

But explode it did, with Mohi finding herself at the epicentre of a linguistic furore. Had she opened ears to the beauty of te reo, or embarrassed the country? Talkback radio went ballistic with the debate; daily papers and the Holmes show weighed in. While some critics were apoplectic, other Kiwis applauded the performance.

It was so beautiful, and a long time coming, recalls actor Robyn Malcolm. Being 1999, Hinewehi dragged us into the 21st century and I feel so proud when I sing it today.

I love how it speaks to Aotearoa as an independent country rather than a nation clinging to the dirty apron strings of the British Empire. I love that my kids know the te reo version and not the English, plus it sounds so much better.

Upon reflection, Mohi will always feel proud to have sparked such an important conversation, though it was hurtful to hear how vociferous some of her detractors were. But, she says, she didnt give it too much attention, as she had bigger fish to fry. She had returned from the UK with the seed of an idea that music might be the key to helping her daughter live a richer, more fulfilling life.

With music impresario Campbell Smith, Mohi and Bradfield established the Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust in 2004. Hine Raukatauri is the Mori goddess of flutes, the personification of music. In Mori legend, she is the case moth, and spends her entire life suspended in a cocoon, which is the inspiration for the shape of the traditional Mori flute, the ptrino. In spite of being confined to her cocoon, her voice is heard through the forest, says Mohi. Which is why I named my daughter Hineraukatauri, because she is trapped in her body, confined to her wheelchair, but through music her voice resonates out into the world.

Parenting a child with special needs is exhausting and sometimes overwhelming, but music can be an incredibly powerful tool for healing.

Today, the trusts music therapists work from centres and schools and outreach programmes across Northland, Auckland, the Bay of Plenty and Hawkes Bay. Mohi and Bradfield are active trustees.

In 2011, Mohi was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a double mastectomy, but even that she views through her innately positive lens. The silver lining? My reconstruction operation involved a tummy tuck, she says with a grin.

On a more serious note, she adds: I also have enormous gratitude to Hineraukatauri for the inspiration she gives me every day. She cant do anything for herself. She cant walk or talk and she has to feed through a tube in her stomach. So, even if Im having a bad-hair day, thats not a problem because at least I can brush my hair.

Raukatauri may have changed the lives of thousands of families coping with a special-needs child but it was Mohis next project that would bring music to a broader audience. If youve sung along to Rob Ruhas 35 or Six60s Pepeha, tapped your foot to Stan Walkers Take It Easy sung as Tau Te Mrire or Benees Kua Kore He Kupu (Soaked), youve heard Mohis mahi.

About five years ago, I bumped into my friend Adam Holt, the head of Universal Music, and I asked him, What say we get well-known artists, translate their songs into Mori, then record them? He said, Sounds good, hit me up.

A few months later, I rang him and asked if he remembered the idea Id mentioned, and he said, Lets do it.

At the time, Mohi was working full-time on the TVNZ series Haka Global. I was only able to work on Waiata Anthems in my spare time, yet somehow it has become the most intense project of my life.

As part of Waiata Anthems, some of Aotearoas most notable contemporary artists have explored themes of personal empowerment, cultural revival and ancestral bonds through music. As an accompaniment, a series of short documentaries has also been made about the project, to widen those reverberations.

For Bic Runga (Ngti Kahungunu, Ngti Rongomaiwahine), raised in Christchurch by a Chinese Malaysian mother and a Mori father, the Waiata Anthems project blew her away. Were in a moment in history where, if you have it in you to say something about race and prejudice, you cant go back to writing a sad little love song that doesnt mean anything.

Don McGlashan was learning te reo Mori when Mohi approached him, so the timing was perfect for him for a new version of Bathe in the River, the hit song he wrote for the film No 2, sung by Hollie Smith. Immersing myself in the process of my songs translation, then recording Krukutia really deepened myengagement with the language, which has made me even more committed to continue my te reo journey, says McGlashan.

For Barnaby Weir (Taranaki), frontman of the Black Seeds, working with Mohi as part of the star-studded ensemble Fly My Pretties opened a portal. Weirs mother had been adopted into a Pkeh family in the 1950s and Weir knew very little of his whakapapa. Our experience has been life-changing, he says of the journey that led from the recording studio to being welcomed onto his Parihaka marae.

Through the process of translating, performing and filming the song T Ktua Whnau (Family Tree), my family and I began an important journey, finding meaningful connection with our Mori heritage and with te reo Mori, says Weir. It fast-tracked a sense of belonging we had not felt before. It changed our perception of who we are and who we can be. Its been such a blessing to use our music as the waka for this growth, and to share it.

As well as the empowerment the project has given musicians, Mohi is also quietly pleased shes been able to get the artists individual record labels to work towards a common goal.

Labels usually compete against each other, but making commercial music in te reo Mori has seen those organisations join together. I dont think that could happen anywhere else but in Aotearoa.

In 2021, Mohi was made a dame companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Mori, music and television. Music is a wonderful way to embrace te reo Mori, to be proud of our culture and heritage, and to represent ourselves with pride, she says.

These days, you can hear an artist just step into a Mori or bilingual song in the middle of a concert. They dont make a big song and dance about it, and the audience reaction is incredible. The cheering that erupts [is] because this is us. Its what were all about. This is why we are who we are.

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How Hinewehi Mohi uses te reo and music to bring Aotearoa together - New Zealand Herald