Ngati Rānana - Māori cultural group

Rights Information
Year
1991
Reference
13887
Media type
Audio

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Rights Information
Year
1991
Reference
13887
Media type
Audio

This content is for private viewing only. The material may not always be available for supply.
Click for more information on rights and requesting.

Duration
00:24:57
Broadcast Date
08 Nov 1991
Credits
RNZ Collection
Cvitanovich, Jerome, Interviewer
Jessop, Esther, Speaker/Kaikōrero

A programme recorded by Jerome Cvitanovich about Ngāti Ranana, the Māori cultural group based at New Zealand House in London.

Jerome interviews several members [all unidentified], including a woman who is married to a Scotsman and has just moved down from Aberdeen.

Another women, who is a second generation Ngāti Rānana member talks about the performances they have been involved in recently. She says since the [Auckland] Commonwealth Games British people are much more aware of Māori culture.

A man whose sister was in the group is interviewed. He went to Te Aute College, so was already very involved in Māori culture and also practised during his service in the Navy.

The secretary of Ngāti Rānana speaks and says she has been living in London for five years. The group begins to practice "Tōia mai' and "Utaina."

In a pub across the road from New Zealand House, Esther Jessop, one of the group's founding members, is interviewed about its beginnings. She says in 1958 when it began, New Zealanders of many different ethnic backgrounds, as well as Australians and Britons, helped form the group.

She talks about some of their memorable performances, including at the Royal Albert Hall, and how they made their first piupiu out of drinking straws. They gathered swan feathers for their costumes from the tow-paths of the Thames.

She says early on British people had no idea who Māori were and were surprised she could speak English so well.

She says Ngāti Rānana also offers Māori who are not confident in their Māoritanga, a chance to re-engage with their culture.