Maori Soldiers Sing Malayan Songs

Te Ao Hou, December 1962, Page 23

Maori Soldiers Sing Malayan Songs A Maori record with a difference has just appeared under the Kiwi label. Called ‘Maori Soldiers Sing Melodies of Malaya’, it is the third release from the Concert Party of the Second Battalion the New Zealand Regiment. (The other two are ‘The Coming of the Maori’ and ‘Maori Soldiers Abroad’.) All royalties from the record have been donated to the Maori Education Foundation. One of the party's visits to the Malayan capital, Kuala Lumpur, coincided with ‘Bulan Bahasa Kebangsa'an’—a special month-long promotion by the Malayans to encourage all members of their multi-racial country to speak Malay, which is the national language. ‘Bulan Bahasa’ is an annual event which is very important in Malaya. At the request of the New Zealand High Commissioner, Mr C. M. Bennett, D.S.O., the officer in charge of the party took several popular songs and gave them Maori words (and in one case, actions) and also wrote verses in Malay telling of the party and its work. The soldiers' performance of these Malay songs was an immediate hit; in a special farewell article to the Battalion, the newspaper the ‘Malay Mail’ expressed this when it said that ‘by singing popular Malay songs and by their friendly ways they have won the confidence of Malayans and helped foster closer understanding between the two countries’. When the party came back to New Zealand their Malayan songs pleased audiences here too, and this prompted ‘Maori Soldiers Sing Melodies of Malaya’.