A huge crowd gathered as soon as the first Maori item started – the whole of Tucepi must have heard the sound, and if they didn’t know that the performance was on before that moment, they had no reason to doubt it after that! More people gathered and the crowd was captured by the music from both groups. (As an aside, I have to say that there is a special skill to being in a crowd in Croatia – you really have to hold your ground because there are no rules about pushing in…).
These two groups have been travelling around the country performing nightly for nearly two weeks, and so obviously the rapport has built up, and the friendship and respect between the groups was apparent on the stage. The items flowed into each other – the initial song was Croatian and the Maori group had learnt the song and sang it with the Croatian group. After the Croatian group danced, there was a magnificent display of poi and haka.
The two Samoan guys sang klapa, and then one of the young men from the Maori group appeared between them and lead the klapa in the most beautiful voice. Gone was the pukana and fierceness, and there appeared the most beautiful smile and sound. The crowd loved it. Reading the paper, the leader of the music for the Croatian group said that the Maori group attended their practices and quickly picked up the songs, and this young man (18 year old) impressed them with his voice. Talk about teary-eyed! The article in the Slobodna Dalmacija (reporting about Saturday night’s performance, not last night’s) ‘vidio sam i suze u ocima’ (with a ‘ch’ on that ‘c’) – I saw eyes filled with tears…
Both groups (and the kiwi groupies) sang Pokarekare Ana with such beautiful harmony (my dad would have been thrilled!). (Quick digresson – our family lived in Wellington for a few years when I was a child, and my father, who is a wonderful singer, was the choir leader for Ngati Poneke Cultural Group in Wellington, so I have fond memories of Sunday evenings in the hall listening to the choir practice).
The ‘piece de resistance’ was the finale when the men from both groups joined in to perform a fierce haka which had the crowd enthralled. As it was the final performance for the tour, gifts were exchanged and the many generous people who had made the tour possible were acknowledged.
I guess those people who didn’t know the word ‘Maori’ before, or, as a friend of mine asked, wondered if they came from Australia, there will be no doubt in their minds now. Radio Makarska was even heard playing Tiki Taane’s song ‘Tangaroa!’(google it!) And I‘ve been looking for a shop which sells something like string so that I can make Ivana some pois. Maybe making a set of sticks from rolled up newspapers like we did in school would be easier…
I spoke to a couple of the young guys from each of the cultural groups afterwards, and they both acknowledged that they were sad that it is now all over, and that it has been the experience of a life time. Gorana Kacurova, the leader of Kralj Tomislav has been filming portions of the months leading up to this trip – hopefully with the footage from the last few weeks, this experience will emerge as a wonderful documentary for everyone to see. They did New Zealand proud!
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