‘Taonga pūoro... is through everything’

Taonga pūoro; a world of Māori understanding and sound. Held within taonga, held within our environment, and held in the way we use them to speak to ourselves, each other, and our ancestors. If you live in Aotearoa, chances are that whether you’ve been aware of it or not, taonga pūoro has been a part of the soundtrack of your life. Whether it’s the kōauau played on the NZ On Air acknowledgement, the waiata of Hirini Melbourne that we hear in our classrooms, the complex feelings of hearing the pūrerehua in ‘Once for Warriors’, or even the birds in the New Zealand bush; taonga pūoro is part of our sonic make up. This is not by accident, this is by whakapapa and determination. I’m excited to tell you about the journey so far through the revival, and a snippet of  the current renaissance. 

Kei te whakarongo koe? Are you listening?

Taonga pūoro is a difficult concept to translate, but for our purposes here, let’s say treasures of Māori sound and vibration. I also like the word instrument, though not everybody does, because this not only shows that taonga pūoro are used for sound, but also alludes to their use for health, akin to medical instruments. Taonga pūoro have been used throughout our communities’ activities, from entertainment to healing, concerts to intimate mahi with ourselves or our close whanau. When colonisation hit, in short, pākehā saw taonga pūoro as a threat to colonisation because of their use for hauora and identity, and were banned as part of the Tohunga Suppression Act of 1907. But our kaumātua could not accept a future where their mokopuna would not have access to these powerful taonga, and kept taonga pūoro alive in secret.

In the 1980s, twenty years after the repeal of the act, Hirini Melbourne, Richard Nunns and Brian Flintoff, as the group Haumanu, travelled around Aotearoa collating these pieces of knowledge kept safe by those kaumātua, and sharing them with in wānanga across the motu. It’s important also to acknowledge the wāhine who were working at this time, many of which were within health spaces. These wāhine include the late Hinewirangi Kohu Morgan,  Mahina-Ina Kingi Kaui, and Winifred Geddes. Over the next several decades the volume of taonga pūoro within Aotearoa continued to increase. Those practicing at the time of the initial Haumanu group became first generation players, and a generation of new players such as Horomona Horo, Ariana Tikao, Alistair Fraser, Tamihana Katene, and Rob Thorne emerged as second generation players; creating albums, teaching wānanga, creating taonga, and much more. We are now entering a new phase of taonga pūoro, beyond the revival. This is the renaissance, and the generations are coming thick and fast. 

There are now taonga pūoro groups around Aotearoa where people share skills, play together, and create events. There is also a new generation ‘Haumanu Collective’ who are funded to uplift taonga pūoro across the motu, create resources, and run wānanga such as the National Taonga Pūoro Makers Wānanga on the 14-17 July, and their wānanga in Ōtautahi on the 25 and 26 July. There, Mahina-Ina Kingi-Kaui and Libby Gray will teach workshops focusing on taonga pūoro as rongoā, alongside other practitioners leading hands-on learning. Another way to get involved is through Te Wānanga o Aotearoa’s new, free level 4 certificate in taonga pūoro in Māngere, Ōtautahi, and Whakatane, hopefully with more to come.

Te Wai Pounamu, as in the times of our tīpuna, is providing powerful places for wānanga and bringing people home to their whenua, themselves, and to pūoro. Puketeraki marae have been holding a series of wānanga on taonga pūoro, as was the wawata of the late taua Rua McCallum, with again, hauora being a strong focus. Te Waiau Mahika Kai trust in Murihiku have also been bringing pūoro into the fold with wānanga around taonga pūoro facilitated by Rangimaria Suddaby and Alistair Fraser, including the making of pōtaka, traditional spinning tops that hold sound and spiritual connections for our people. Ngāti Rangi are filling the kāhui maunga with oro with multiple programmes and initiatives happening across their rohe including ‘Taonga Pūoro Hauora Kete’; a wananga series open to Ngāti Rangi from pēpī to kaumātua facilitated by Jamie Downes, Sebastian Lowe and Koroheke Robb with the ‘Breakthrough Community Trust’. Jamie Downes is also working alongside ‘Te Kura Kaupapa of Ngai Te Rangi’ including taonga pūoro within their ‘Mana Tane – Mana Wāhine’ programme, ensuring that oro is part of the lives of the people of Ngai te Rangi at all stages of life. 

One of my favourite ways to be around pūoro is in live performance, and it’s fair to say that taonga pūoro has been taken onto some pretty big stages in the last year. A huge part of that is MOKOTRON who graced both the Laneway and Cuba Dupa stages, with huge crowds in support. Before that, MOKOTRON was on stage spreading their oro far and wide at Glastonbury in 2025 with their Taite prize winning record, WAEREA. Off overseas in September, Māori indie rock exponent and taonga pūoro player, Great South, is playing ‘Bigsound’ festival in Brisbane where his music will also feature taonga pūoro player, maker, and all around pūoro polymath, Rāhana Larsen Taylor aka ‘Waiwhai’, who has just finished a previous tour of Europe with ‘Leao’.‘ Keep an eye out for a documentary on Rāhana by fellow taonga pūoro exponente, Salvador Brown, ‘Oro Ngātahi Haerenga’, hopefully screening near you soon!

Off the big stage and the big screen, there are lots of taonga pūoro artists touring Aotearoa and playing in their local scenes. Whakatū (Nelson) has a long history of taonga pūoro, with long term resident Brian Flintoff of the original Haumanu, being a kaitiaki here, and now a new generation of players are coming through. These include ‘Sueno Oro’ and ‘Te Droneeater’, both of which are championed by musician, composer, taonga pūoro practitioner, and teacher, Christopher Mulholland. ‘Suena Oro’ weaves together oro from Aotearoa and Spain, with the band just having returned from their national tour ‘Te Heke Tō Taura Kōrari’. Droneeater explores links between drone music, moteatea, and taonga pūoro, two varied and beautiful projects. 

Tāmaki Makarau has a strong pūoro scene with the rōpū ‘Tāmaki Oro Rau’ who meet regularly in ōkawa and ōpaki wānanga, and who recently undertook a haerenga to Mokoia island, and checked out taonga pūoro back of house at Auckland museum. They play gigs at venues such as Audio Foundation. If you’re down in Te Upoko o te Ika, you may be lucky enough to catch ‘Mauri Aura’, a duo of Wear Pounamu (Mikaere Heroti) and Lakeboon (Curtis Lake) who combine waiata hiko and taonga pūoro, or you may have been lucky enough to have seen them already when they performed at last year’s Port Noise festival in Lyttleton. 

From the days of the original whare tāpere, taonga pūoro has also had a home within theatre. Recent show ‘Wahine Mātātoa: The (Mostly) True Story of Erihāpeti Pātahi’ by Cindy Diver has a dedicated role of kaipūoro. In the past several iterations it has been filled by both Madison Kelly and Ariana Tikao. Rameka Tāmaki is also bringing pūoro to the stage and to wharenui alike, with his work with Tē Rākau and Hūro Productions current show ‘Waenga’. Dr. Riki Pirihi, who has created a method of conducted improvisation within te ao Māori called Rangatuone, is on stage with a hybrid show of taonga pūoro, conduction, classical instruments, and a fantastic new story cycle from Ockham award winner writer, Tina Makareti. ‘Ā Mua’ is currently on tour with Chamber Music New Zealand, with shows coming up in Otautahi, Otepoti, Tamaki and more. Keep an eye out in October for an epic show around the release of Hikurangi Schaverien-Kaa’s solo project ‘Hikurangi, with his debut solo album, ‘The Unknot’ which features two ensembles sonically woven together with Hikurangi’s drum work; one a jazz ensemble and one a merge of taonga pūoro and electronics. 

If listening at home is more accessible for you, we have a wide range of music that incorporates our taonga in as many ways as there are practitioners. A stand out for this past year is Rob Thorne’s work alongside Karl Steven for the soundtrack of the award winning film ‘Mārama’, a great opportunity to see and hear Māori creatives on speaker and screen. Another recording artist that I really admire is Rakau. Tangata whaikaha artist Rakau Buchanan is a pūoro power house, with the bedroom producer having created eight EPs to date. Noa Records which features many taonga pūoro players across its stellar collection of recordings.

It’s true, taonga pūoro has always been here, whether in secret whispers on the wind, or loud and proud on the stage and screen. We play our pūoro here thanks to what our ancestors have passed to us through time, and every taonga, and every sound matters. To many of us it’s the smallest sounds that have the biggest impact. It’s the pāpā playing kōauau with his children before bed, it’s the kuia who gives her granddaughter a pūtātara when she becomes a woman, and it’s the snot-nosed tamariki playing porotiti while home from school with a cold. It’s every small action adding up to a movement. To quote practitioner Jamie Downes; “Taonga pūoro... is through everything”. It’s not something we do or a place we go, it’s who we are. Kei te whakarongo tātou? Are we listening?