June 09, 2021
Sharing knowlege opened doors to learn taonga pūoro
A leading taonga pūoro specialist says the revival of traditional Māori instruments will forever be associated with the names of Richard Nunns and Hirini Melbourne.
Nunns died on Sunday aged 75.
Horomona Horo says it was because of those two that the sounds of the pūtātara can now be heard when the All Blacks run onto the playing field, or in the incidental music played on Māori documentaries and dramas.
He says the Nelson English teacher and jazz musician's haerenga was sparked by a newspaper article on traditional instruments, and he tried to find out what they may have sounded like.
"He was a Pakeha that many Māori leaders of that time shared knowledge with because he had a way of transferring that matauranga to the people who would listen and the people that could hear the way he played that taonga puoro," Horo says.
Copyright © 2021, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com