Radio Pageant of the Maori Race

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 3, 2 August 1929, Page 9

Radio Pageant of the Maori Race

Great Broadcast Programme Arranged for August 8-9

LL arrangements have been made for the presentation’ of the Radio Pageant of the Maori race, which is to be broadcast next week. In this radio pageant, the history and mode of life of the Maori people are intended to pass in review. One is supposed to picture an old chief seated alone at the door of his whare in a pah on the banks of the Wanganui River. He is dozing in the noonday sun and dreaming of the days that are past. ; The pageant will be presented by a contingent * Maoris from the Wanganui district. It is now a long time since the first Maori, Kupe, the great navigator, voyaging in his canoe down the west coast of the North Island,‘came to the mouth of a river where the city of .Wanganui now stands. He called it the Wanga-nui, because the river was wide, almost like an estuary. That was.in the«dim past. It is, interesting to review the life of a people and it is fitting that Maoris from the Wanganui district ‘should be the ones to present such a retrospect’ as that covered by the scope of the. radio pageant. ; It is intended to present the Radio Pageant at 2YA on the evening of Thursday, August 8, commencing at 8 o’clock. Station 3YA. will rébroadcast and relay to 4YA, On the Friday

evening the pageant will be produced again especially for the benefit of listeners overseas. A special message has been sent to the Byrd Expedition and he and his party will be listeningin in Little America. THE STORY OF THE PAGEANT. N introductory narrative will precede the six’ phases of the pageant. The principal speaker of the Maori party will be Hamiora Hakopa. He will paint in words the right setting for the pageant and in this he will be helped by the recital of portion of Sir Apirana Ngata’s "Scenes from -the Past." The pageant deals with six phases in the life of the Maoris. Scene 1 is the arrival of Kupe. There is to be a descriptive address, a thanksgiving incantation and .a_ thanksgiving aka. ' "THEN follows a phase descriptive of the Maoris at home in the early days. Into this will be introduced various games and there will be playing on the only Maori musical instrument, the koauau flute. Listeners will hear the speeches given at the -reception to visitors to the pah. This phase of ‘the pageant will be a particularly interesting one, affording as it does

such entertaining sidelights on Maori customs. Poi dances and hakas are given for the entertainment of the, visitors. Scene 3 deals with the dawn of a new era and the coming of the missionaries. An interesting item in this phase will be a selection played on jew’ s harps. It is worthy of mention that a jew’s harp was the first musical instrument of . pakeha origin adopted by the Maoris. HE Maoris’ part in the Great War is handled in Scene 4. In this will be sung the touching lament, "‘Piko nei te Matenga" ("When Our. Heads are Bowed with Woe’’). Mangu Tahaha will sing the solo part and there will be an aecompanying chorus. Scene 5 is descriptive of the Maoris in song and play, to-day. The upriver steamer has: brought a large number of visiting young people and a Maori entertainment follows. It is all. unadulterated melody and harmony. There are many songs and choruses, while rhythmic. poi dances are introduced. — Scene 6 of the pageant is laid in the beautiful grounds of a chief’s residence and the .programme works up to a dramatic climax, driving home to pakeha and Maori the lesson of the pageant, which closes with a stirring haka and the singing of ‘Home, Sweet Home."