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Maori voice with humback

February 7, 2006 By Chris Corrigan Music, Uncategorized 3 Comments

From the logs of The Whalesong Project, located in Kihei on Maui:

We witnessed a beautiful and unusual, from a modern western perspective, event this week. Raina Ferris visited us from Aotearoa, New Zealand, and we took her out on the ocean to support her cultural interest and connection to the whales. Raina is a Maori kai-karanga tahuna (spiritual chanter) and professor of Maori studies at Te Wanganga O Raukawa in Otaki. She came to Maui to share Maori tradition, and to further research on ancient ties between Maui and Aotearoa – alluded to in the ancestral chants of her clan. Those of us who saw the movie Whalerider witnessed Maori chanting and belief systems that connect the Maori to Hawai’i, and to the whales. Paikea, the young woman who inherited the name of the Maori ‘prophet’ who came to Aotearoa on the back of a whale, from Hawai’i, chanted – and the whales came. We witnessed this in real life when Raina performed her Haka – prayers in a chanting format. We cut the engines and drifted in the wind and waves as Raina chanted from the bow and we were followed by a mother and calf on the surface. And a male with a powerful voice stayed below the boat and sang a beautiful, powerful, soulful song. Those of us who have been listening closely to the songs of these whales for over five years now were surprised to hear the characteristics of the song change rapidly and dramatically. There was a strong impression that there was an unexplainable interaction between Raina and the whales…

I think this is not a haka, but a powhiri, if I’m not mistaken. Hakas are war chants, and this sounds like a powhiri, the kind of song sung on the marae to welcome vistors. Please correct me if I’m wrong. The song is haunting, and especially the way the humpback seems to respond. While I was in Maui last month, we went whalewatching and saw 20 humpbacks and sat transfixed listening to them sing as well. You can find more about Maori whale songs at folksong.org.nz

mp3:Raina Ferris and humpback whale – Chant

By the way, the Parking Lot soundtrack, a list of all the mp3’s I have been collecting here over the past year is hosted at Webjay. You can go visit and stream the whole thing. It’s a pretty good listen, if I do say so myself.

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3 Comments

  1. Tina says:
    September 22, 2012 at 1:30 am

    Kia Ora Chris and thankyou for posting this. You’re quite right this is not a haka – the correct term for this is a karanga – the ancestral call of women that resonates across the spiritual as well as the physical plane. Mauriora. T

  2. Tina says:
    September 22, 2012 at 1:31 am

    (n.b. The karanga is an integral part of the pohiri process that you mention as it is the karanga that calls the physical and spiritual beings together and create the spiritual space for our ceremonies to operate within)

  3. Chris Corrigan says:
    September 24, 2012 at 2:05 pm

    Thanks for the confirmation Tina!

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