Te Mahi Tamariki was the name of the first whare at Ōtākou Marae. It was built in the late 1800's and named by elders of that generation as recognition that the fight for land rights and the rights guaranteed under Te Tiriti o Waitangi would have to be taken up by the youth generation.
We have utilised this name for our album to recognise that although the Ngāi Tahu claim has now been settled for 20 years, the fight for the ongoing life of the language and culture remains. Its future is the hands of our youth generation. Invitations went out across the South Island to rakatahi that would equally be able to contribute and learn from this experience.
We approached Troy Kingi and Mara TK in 2017 to help with this kaupapa. They were both keen as and in March 2017, we kicked off our first wānanga.
Tito Waiata - The Songwriting Process
The rakatahi formed their own groups of about 3-4 with at least one guitarist. They were asked to choose three chords and be back in a half hour with a melody. After an hour the groups returned and they had all written at least a half a song or more.
Troy, Mara, Karuna Thurlow, Maaka Pohatu, Paulette and I all helped with ideas and concepts as the rakatahi shaped their songs, building choruses and bridges, pre-choruses and verses.
They found inspiration in their personal lives, in their Māoritanga and in their own lived experiences.
Kapo Waiata - Recording
After three wānaka focussed on song-writing over 30 songs were started. Troy and Mara were tasked with laying the musical tracks that would form the foundation of recordings, unfortunately only 14 songs were completed enough to go through this process. This work was undertaken in Wellington in early 2018 with Lee Prebble from Studio Surgery. Tūmai and Taina were fortunate enough to participate in this part of the journey.
In February we enlisted the services of a sound technician, Danny Buchanan and gathered everybody again to record their songs. We turned Tamatea, the Whareneui at Ōtākou in to a recording studio with mattresses and mats and Troy directed a pretty hearty three days solid of recording. We came away with 14 songs in the bag.
The Pre-release
After a successful but tiring National Kapa Haka campaign we had to turn around and back it right up with our Pre-Release concert. Everyone arrived dressed in their number ones, ready to entertain. Whānau and friends arrived en masse and our concert went off without a hitch. Troy and Mara were joined by local musician Rapture Latu to form the rhythm section and the rakatahi let loose with their songs
We have not yet set a date for the actual release, but are still hoping to have the album available for sale in 2018.
Hori Mātaki and the crew at Ariki Creative worked with Kiliona to develop the album cover ensuring that there was a rakatahi hand in every aspect of the album's production. Ariki Creative will also produce a booklet that will accompany the album.
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