Tawhaki (track 9 of 16)

Track 9 of the 1970 album Songs of Maori heroes, by Upper Hutt kapa haka group Māwai Hakona, 'Tawhaki' is an action song with words and music by Te Oka (Jock McEwen). This is the old folk story of Tawhaki, known in many parts of Polynesia. The words are based on an ancient chant from Whanganui. They tell how Tawhaki's celestial wife Tangotango, offended with her husband, went back with their daughter to the tenth heaven in the over-world. Tawhaki laboriously climbed up a huge vine reaching from the earth to the tenth heaven reciting a karakia (charm) to give him strength – 'pipiri moko, rarau moko'. He eventually rejoined Tangotango and their daughter.