Ngatai Huata daughter of the composer of the famous song Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi sings with the panel on the Kawe Kōrero programme.
In the LIVE interview, Huata took up the challenge given by Presenter Heta Gardiner to relive the well-known ditty composed by her father Cannon Wiremu Te Tau Huata.
On the show, Huata strummed her guitar, singing the song while the panel of reporters Leah Te Whata and Moana Makapelu-Lee harmoniously sang with her.
Huata told Kawe Kōrero that the song was composed in the late 1950s following a meeting her father attended while in Wairoa. "Dad had been part of a movement of rearming people's morales and values. It was an ecumenical movement and they had been part of a moving world show Up, Up with People" says Huata.
Huata recalled the event vividly where she sat in the back seat of their car with her four brothers. Her father composed the song when they traveled on the road alongside Lake Tūtira.
Huata says "he would sing it (Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi) and then we would repeat it (Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi). By the time we got to Te Matau-a-Māui to Napier, we had learnt the song Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi."
Cannon Wiremu Te Tau Huata was known for composing on the road while travelling from meeting to meeting. Huata affirmed that 'Tūtira mai ngā iwi, tātou, tātou' is also a whakatauki (proverb) and kīwaha (idiom) written by her father.
The iconic song has been sung by Kiwis for the last 60 years. Now the song is being used as an All Blacks anthem by supporters to out roar their rugby opposition the British and Irish Lions.
A fitting chant to symbolise unity for the All Blacks in the decider game in the Lions series that kicks-off on Saturday night at Eden Park in Auckland.