Miss Tuini Ngawai

Te Ao Hou, December 1965, Page 64

Miss Tuini Ngawai The death occurred on 13 August of Miss Tuinui Ngawai of Tokomaru Bay, the well-known East Coast song composer and entertainer. Miss Ngawai belonged to Te Whanau-a-Rua-taupere a sub-tribe of Ngati Porou. Her first song, He Nawe Kei Roto, was written in 1933, and was performed informally at the opening of To o te Tonga meeting house at Tokomaru Bay. It was for this occasion that she organised one of her earliest haka parties. Her well-known Hokowhitu-a-Tu party was first organised in 1939 to give a final leave farewell to (Ngati-Porou) C Co. boys at Tokomaru Bay. Her song for that occasion was Arohaina Mai, one of her best known compositions. Miss Ngawai was closely associated with Sir Apirana Ngata, who used her party a great deal for fund raising. One of the greatest tributes he paid to her was when, soon after the war, he arranged for her to teach action songs in the East Coast schools. Tuini Ngawai's complete works comprise well over 200 songs. Many of them are concerned with the universal themes of poetry—love, death, war the peace of God. Others, such as her shearing songs, are lively and accomplished songs of everyday life. Many others are songs of welcome. Her songs are strongly individual in character, with language which is pure, economical, forceful and precise. She excelled in the blending of words, music and actions. Sometimes she composed her own music, but usually she based on on a popular tune of which her hearers were already fond. She wrote her last song, during a period of ill-health, for the Maori reception to the 1965 Springboks at Gisborne. The funeral was at Tokomaru Bay.