Toi Puoro: Taonga Puoro and Waiata at NCEA Level 1
Toi Puoro is the Māori music domain of your Level 1 programme. The assessment asks you to recognise, name and explain taonga puoro (traditional instruments) and waiata (sung and chanted items), and to link each one to its material, its sound and the occasion it belongs to. Marks come from precise vocabulary rather than long descriptions.
Naming taonga puoro
Sort instruments by how the sound is made:
- Blown: kōauau (small flute, bone or wood, with finger holes); pūtōrino (larger wooden flute with a wide, voice-like range); nguru (small nose flute, often whale tooth or stone); pūkāea (long wooden trumpet used for signalling and to support haka or pōwhiri); pūtātara (conch shell trumpet).
- Struck: ku, pakuru, tumutumu (sticks and boards keeping the beat); papātahi (paired clappers).
- Whirled: porotiti, spun on a cord.
- Gourd: hue, used for percussion and as a resonator.
Materials are wood, bone, stone, shell and gourd - name the material because questions often reward it.
Waiata and their occasions
- Mōteatea - unaccompanied lament or chant; the poetry carries alone.
- Waiata aroha (love), waiata tangi (grief), oriori (lullaby for a child), pātere (rapid chant).
- Haka, ngeri, poi, whakaaraara (alert chant), karanga (call).
- Roles: the kaihautū leads and the group answers; watch for the cue that starts the final line.
Worked example
Question: “A small instrument is made of bone, has three finger holes and is blown directly with the mouth. Name it and justify your answer.”
Reasoning: blown, so it is a flute-type instrument, which rules out struck and whirled items. Small size, bone material and finger holes point to kōauau; a pūtōrino is larger and wooden, and a nguru is played with the nose.
Traps that cost marks
Swapping kōauau and pūtōrino; calling the pūtātara wooden when it is shell; describing a mōteatea as guitar-accompanied; naming an instrument without stating its function or material; writing only “flute” instead of the Māori name.