Bernard Makoare - Taonga Puoro & Carver at MAORI MARKet
Traditional Maori musical instruments (Taonga puoro) made obsolete by the early missionaries, who deemed them improper, are re-emerging and at MAORI MARKet in Wellington last weekend, visitors had a chance to see them being made and played by one of the best...
MAORI MARKet Media Resource (May 2007)
Bernard Makoare - Taonga Puoro (Maori Musical Instruments), Carver – Dargaville
Traditional Maori musical instruments (taonga puoro) made obsolete by the early missionaries, who deemed them improper, are re-emerging and at MAORI MARKet in Wellington last weekend, visitors had a chance to see them being made and played by one of the best.
The inaugural MAORI MARKet was a great success, with over 7,000 visitors attending and $1 million worth of art being sold. 100 talented Maori artists, both professional and emerging, exhibited their works – from clay, to carving, jewellery, weaving, painting and ta moko. Bernard Makaore, of Dargaville, was there to share his passion for taonga puoro...
Bernard, a talented carver, was captivated by taonga puoro while in his twenties, and has been researching and creating the instruments for the past two decades. Integrity to the original art forms has been the hallmark of his work – even as he experiments with new and non-indigenous materials. Taonga puoro are made from a variety of materials: bone, stone, wood, and shell and were traditionally played for healing, rituals and to re-create particular moments in time.
“Taonga puoro were used to portray different aspects of the environment – water, birds, the wind... Natural imitation of sound could recreate these elements and re-evoke the essence of a moment.”
“Social rituals, healing rituals and rituals of encounter were made more potent through the use of sound. Sounds would intensify situations of conflict.”
Some of the first encounters with the European were misunderstandings created through these sounds. When Abel Tasman came into ‘Murderers Bay’ Maori sent a challenge through sounding a conch shell. Tasman heard this and responded with a bugle – the intention being to say ‘this is how similar we are.’ The Maori however, thought the bugle sound was an invitation to fight, so sent out their longboats in challenge.
The Maori had a didgeridoo counterpart, a pukaea, which was used as a war trumpet and was also sounded by midwives during childbirth. Life and death transitions were intensified by the use of the pukaea.
Knowledge of taonga puoro has been hard to come by, as the missionaries had done such a good job of suppressing the traditional art form. Bernard was lucky enough to have as his mentor the ‘founder’ of traditional Maori music, Hirini Melbourne, of the Toi Hoi tribe in the Bay of Plenty, who he tracked down and came under the tutelage of, for several years until Hirini’s death four years ago.
In creating taonga puoro, Bernard’s aim is to reintroduce people to an aspect of Maori culture that has been cast into the shadows.
“It is not so much musical, it is holistic - a fundamental, whole way of seeing the environment and the people – and how they interact.”
Bernard calls himself a Maori instrument maker, insisting his playing is woefully inadequate.
“Not everyone is going to be a good player. It is a God given gift for people to create sound in a way that moves others. It is a great gift – and it pushes my buttons to be able to make these things!”
Taonga puoro was, and is, more spontaneous than western music. It was improvised according to circumstances, the time and the environment. And where a violin player, for example, achieves distinction through discipline and practice, with taonga puoro, it is not about practice – it is about the uniqueness of the instrument and the uniqueness of the player and the reason for playing.
“Each instrument has a distinctive voice and quality of sound. Mixed with expertise, that would create a particular and unique voice.”
Bernard is a full-time carver, having been taken by his elders to learn carving at the age of six. His passion is taonga puoro – it has, he says, more dimensions to it than carving and requires a lot of focus.
MAORI MARKet – which was modelled on the famous INDIAN MARKET in Sante Fe, New Mexico, is set to return to the capital in two years time and the organisers say it will be bigger and brighter than the first time round.
ENDS