Te Reo, English, and a Twenty-Minute Check
Four tauira have three weeks to write a 32-bar waiata for an internal. The brief allows only four chords (I, IV, V, vi) and requires the text to be in te reo Māori. Hine, the most fluent member, wrote a first draft of the lyrics but is away at a noho marae for the middle week. Tom wants an English verse in the second half so the audience understands it, and has already written one. The school's policy says any item performed in public in te reo Māori must be checked by a reo Māori speaker before performance; the kaiako is on leave and the only available checker, a kuia, can see the group for 20 minutes on the Friday of the second week. They have a recording session in a music room in 10 days and one USB microphone.
1. Decide the language structure of the waiata and justify the decision against the brief, the audience and the available checking time.
Read the worked answer
What the brief actually asks. The text must be in te reo Māori. It does not forbid English, but any English has to earn its place, and it cannot replace the reo - otherwise the group fails the brief regardless of how good the English verse is. That is the first constraint to state plainly to Tom.
Tom's concern is legitimate but misdiagnosed. He assumes the audience needs literal meaning to be moved. A waiata carries meaning through melody, repetition, dynamics and the occasion as much as through vocabulary. A programme note with a short English translation does the job Tom wants without splitting the item's language.
Decision:
- All 32 bars of sung text in te reo Māori.
- A short spoken English introduction (two lines) delivered by Tom before the item, framed as a welcome, not a verse. This respects his contribution and the audience.
- A printed translation in the programme, credited to Tom and Hine jointly.
Why not a sung English verse: it would need its own reo check to ensure the surrounding text still reads coherently, it doubles the text to be verified and rehearsed in three weeks, and it risks making the reo feel like decoration before the 'real' meaning arrives. That last point is a judgement about respect, not just about marks.
Checking time: the 20 minutes with the kuia should be spent on the sung reo and Tom's two spoken lines, not on an English verse she has no reason to check.
2. Plan the three weeks so that the kuia's 20 minutes are genuinely useful, and explain what the group should bring to that meeting.
Read the worked answer
Principle: a 20-minute check is only valuable if the material is already stable and the questions are specific. Turning up with a rough draft wastes the only expert available.
Week 1 (Hine still present):
- Settle the melody and chord pattern first - I, IV, V, vi in a repeating 8-bar cycle. Words are fitted to a fixed melody, not the reverse.
- Hine records herself speaking each line slowly on a phone. This becomes the pronunciation reference when she is away.
Week 2 (Hine away):
- Mon–Wed: group learns from Hine's recordings. No new text is added.
- Thursday: produce a clean one-page sheet - each line numbered, macrons typed, a literal English gloss in a second column, and three flagged questions (e.g. is this line's stress pattern natural when sung?, is this word right for 'gathering' or does it imply a different kind of gathering?).
- Friday: 20-minute meeting. Ask the flagged questions first, then sing it through once.
Week 3:
- Revise. Record on the USB mic in the music room, one take of voice and one of guitar, so the balance can be adjusted later.
- Send the final audio to the kuia for a last listen before performance.
What not to do: rely on an online dictionary as the check, or ask the kuia to 'fix' the text on the day - that transfers the group's work to her.