Echoes from Hawaiki is a comprehensive account of taonga pūoro ancestral musical traditions and instrument-playing techniques.
Author Jennifer Cattermole traces the origins and development of taonga pūoro, the stories they carry and how they connect present-day iwi with ancestral knowledge and traditions.
The book is thoroughly researched, with Cattermole showing how traditional Māori and Moriori musical instruments have developed in response to available materials and evolving cultural needs, from their ancestral origins through the suppression of their use in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Aotearoa New Zealand, to their revival in the present day.It explores the way Māori and Moriori practice their ancestral musical instrument types, playing techniques and uses, while making innovative changes to them in response to the context, materials and ways of living.
Cattermole is an Associate Professor at the University of Otago and one of Aotearoa’s leading ethnomusicologists with a particular interest in Māori, Moriori and Pacific Island music. She is passionate about taonga pūoro and is an experienced player, maker and educator. While I was worried about this book being too academic, Cattermole pitches it perfectly. She's packed the pages full of information but in an easy-to-read way. Her passion shines through the pages and it's obvious that she's written this book as a way to inspire, inform and pass on her knowledge and ensure the voices of these taonga are carried into the future.The photography is absolutely stunning, highlighting the taonga pūoro as the important treasures they are. A QR code takes readers to sound recordings of the author playing the particular taonga pūoro, which is a lovely, and important, touch.
Fascinating appendixes offer further insights, and an in-depth index, notes and bibliography show just how much research, and dedication, Cattermole has put into this taonga.As Boua Huata Holmes writes in the foreword, "me enei rau o ro tonu tenei taoka nei, kia filifilia ra me aroha noa - may these leaves within this treasure be truly rustled with loving care".
Reviewer: Rebekah Lyell
Otago University Press