Weir tells of Māori heritage
When Barnaby Weir accepted the invitation to translate Fly My Pretties’ song Family Tree into te reo Māori he was anxious, but it took him and his mother on a journey of self discovery.
Weir was not only nervous about singing in a language he did not speak, but because he was disconnected from his own Māori heritage.
His Māori mother, Judi, was adopted by a Pākehā family in the 1950s, severing all ties she had with her whakapapa. ‘‘She had no contact with those people and family, and it’s what was done back then.[people were] often told not to be Māori or not to be proud of your heritage, so she didn’t have a connection with it,’’ Weir, also frontman of The Black Seeds, said.
As part of the Waiata Anthems documentary, which sees New Zealand artists translate their popular songs into te reo, Weir and his mother discussed the effect not having any connection to her whānau or whakapapa has had on her and the family. Weir, who lives in New Plymouth, said while this project was a good start to explore their identity as Māori, the journey was ongoing as they have not connected with Judi’s biological whānau, who she has been looking for since she was a teen. As part of the documentary, they were also invited to Parihaka marae where they met with iwi leaders and kaumātua and learned about the settlement.
On November 5, 1881, Māori were evicted from Parihaka by 1600-armed constabulary and volunteers who invaded the pā.
Learning the story of the massacre at Parihaka helped Weir and his mother understand their trauma of severed connection to whakapapa, language, and culture was shared by many Māori.
‘‘For mum to be accepted onto the marae, even though it’s not hers - well, we don’t know for sure - was really cool and really heartening and encouraging and beautiful. I said I didn’t want it to be just a translated song and a token effort, and it was exactly the opposite of that, it was really cool and meaningful and challenging.’’
Family Tree, which was written roughly 20 years ago, has been translated into te reo Māori to Tō Kātua Whānau, with support from mātanga reo and iwi leader of the Taranaki region, Wharehoka Wano.
The translation added more meaning to the words than they have in English, Weir said.
Weir performed all instruments, with Wano providing percussion from the local Parihaka drum, belonging to the Taranaki region.
‘‘Parihaka people used the drum to call back to the military who had a drum because it’s quite an English thing to do to have your marching band and to be like, we’re here, we’re terrorising you, basically. And so they were like, well, we’re going to have our own drum. So that’s quite a significant thing, because most marae don’t have a marching band bass drum as their taonga.’’
The process of connecting with their Māori heritage and te reo language is ongoing, but
Weir said this project was a meaningful start.
Waiata Anthems is available to stream now on TVNZ+ and Tō Kātua Whānau is on Spotify.