Ohinemutu 1943: Apirana Ngata gives speech of welcome

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Sir Apirana Ngata officiated over the proceedings at the opening of the house Tama te Kapua at Ohinemutu, Rotorua in 1943.  In this recording he welcomes the Prime Minister, Governor General and his wife.

Transcript

Introduction - Apirana Ngata:   I’m asked to introduce Rotorua recording 8A.  The caption is a speech of welcome to the Prime Minister and their Excellencies by myself. This was in March of 1943. I was and I am not a member of the Arawa tribe but they did me the honour of asking me to act as one of the hosts on the occasion of the opening of the Tama-te-kapua Meeting House. I was also their representative in parliament at that time. In that capacity I was in order in making the speech of welcome recorded below and which explains itself.

Apirana Ngata speech:  Mr Fraser we’ve arrived at the time when we will have to speed on with the program in so far as those receiving you  are concerned and their Excellencies. All I have to say is, in the words of your old friend Timi Kara, ‘tatau tatau’. You and we are one in the deference we are paying to their Excellencies today and all our visitors. And I want to extend to you and the members of the Ministry here present and also to Mr Parry who unfortunately could not attend today, the thanks of all the Maori tribes assembled here for what has been done for our people - for their uplift, their betterment and all the opportunities that are being afforded to them. I know you have very much in your heart, my friend Mr Mitchell here, and through him the tribe that he so ably leads, and so kia ora to you. 

Ah, your Excellencies – I haven’t much to add to the greetings of the Maori tribes presented to you here today.  Presently they will hand over to you for transmission to his Majesty the King an address of royalty from the Maori tribes.  One doesn’t want to stress that too much at this time - we’re all in the same boat, all doing our best during a very difficult period.   I have just this to say, that one of your predecessors, this was at Waitangi about nine years ago, in his address there said this: you judge of a people by their monuments, you judge of a people by their monuments.  Here is one of the great monuments of a Maori tribe.  The mere fact that they have in this building completed the third reconstruction of their name ancestor should show that the spirit in them, which brought them to this land, is not yet dead.  And so judge of your Arawa people by the monument which they have so assiduously erected with the help of the government in the last decade.  And you will appreciate the attempt that our people are making under all sorts of handicaps the greatest of which is the pull of Western civilisation to maintain worthwhile elements in their culture.  It’s not always a well understood thing.  We get any amount of lavish praise about our arts and crafts.  We have plenty of professions about maintaining these, but I tell you it’s quite a little war in itself to get one of these done.  That is why at the beginning with your Excellencies' permission I tendered the thanks of the Maori race to the present Prime Minister and the members of his cabinet who have assisted us in doing what we have accomplished up to date.  Now, besides being our Governor General you are an Englishman.  We have the breed here, ah, thriving very well and we are getting in this climate, a very good climate, quite unexpected developments of the material imported from the country which we've not seen yet – your Hawaiki.  I don’t want to refer to the weeds that the Pakeha have brought, you hear my young friend here, you have the translation of that very eloquent expression of Maori opinion, what they said was this: it was because of the dirtiness of the Maori, his uncleanliness, his vile customs that brought you to New Zealand to try and civilise them.  Ah, they went on further when they said, instead of confining themselves to civilising the Maori they grabbed their lands and they put the whole of a century into two very eloquent words, three eloquent words – two borrowed from your language which I will not attempt to put in the original.  One from the language of this country, they weren’t civilised enough to develop a wide range of swear words, but they used one there today. 

Now, it is on these occasions your Excellency that a chief is recognised by one thing in these entertainments and their hakas and that is by the adjectives they use and you should feel very honoured that they used some on the occasion of your visit to Rotorua.  That is a former Governor General did not understand and I had the job to make him understand, that it only shows you can fittingly receive a great chief to our marae.  We extend to you and Lady Newall our congratulations that you are in God’s own country.  At the same time we wish to acknowledge through you as through former Governor Generals the great gesture that England makes to the native races throughout the Empire.  There’s a lot to do yet, but I won’t tell you about that, I deal with other gentlemen when I refer to those ones.  But take it by and large, although on occasion we spit it out, take it by and large the native races who are under the British flag should deem themselves as we the Maori people at the end of the century, deem ourselves to be very fortunate enough to be under the British Crown.  I want to tell you a secret, really I like the Pakeha, but there are times when you get impatient with them.  So, welcome to Rotorua, do the marae honour and our Arawa people and through them the whole of the representatives of the Maori race because they’re all here, the honour that you’ve been conferred on them by gracing them with your presence here today.  Kia ora.

Reference:

Sound file from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, ref: 46574. Any re-use of this audio is a breach of copyright.

Image
Sir Apirana Ngata with his granddaughter, Wiki White. Pascoe, John Dobree, 1908-1972 :Photographic albums, prints and negatives. Ref: 1/4-000252-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22761154

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