Rere Tōtika - Mā te kahukura

Ingoa: Rere Tōtika, Rere Pai
Momo: Waiata Tira
Kaitito: Hōhepa Tamehana
First Performed: 1999
Whakamārama: Mā te kahukura was written by Hōhepa Tamehana for a play performed at Takirua Māori Theatre in Wellington based on a book written by his sister Esther Tamehana called He Kahurere.
He had been asked to put music to a portion of the play. Having not done this he received a call from the director while he was at work who asked for the music and waiata to be sent through by the end of that day. Setting his kids to task in the classroom he went outside, wrote and recorded the waiata on a four-stringed guitar and sent it to Wellington on a courier, all in 20 minutes. Hōhepa, Kepa and Sophronia Smith performed live backing vocals for the play. Hōhepa says “they made the waiata famous, they were better singers than me”.
Hōhepa taught Mā te kahukura to Whānau Whānui and they performed it as their choral in their bracket for the Ngāti Kahungunu Regionals in 1999.
The waiata is now famous throughout the motu. Mā te Kahukura was written for the part of the play where Roimata a young girl, takes the feathers from her cloak and bonds them to the manu (bird).