Kia ora from London town

5:00AM Thursday December 06, 2007
By Stephen Jewell
As I emerge from the tube station, the chaotic throng of shoppers milling around the junction of Oxford and Regent streets initially confuses me. It's the first Saturday in December and more than one million Londoners have descended upon the city's premier retail district, which has been pedestrianised for the occasion. Despite the absence of cars, the West End is even more hectic than usual, but as I make my way through the crowd, I am drawn to the familiar accents of the friendly faces queuing outside the Salvation Army's Regent Hall.

Today, the church is playing host to London Maori club Ngati Ranana's 13th annual Christmas celebration of Maori and Polynesian culture. As a trio of Salvation Army horn players from the Regent Hall band push past, one of them remarks on the impressive size of the sold-out crowd.

Upon entering the auditorium, the intricately carved arch that forms the centrepiece of London-based artist George Nuku's set looms auspiciously over the stage, turning the theatre into an erstwhile marae for the afternoon.

_Burrows - who co-hosts with New Zealand-born Samoan performance artist/poet Rosana Raymond - opens the festivities with a heartfelt "kia ora".

"When a Maori says kia ora to you, you should say kia ora back," he declares - before the muted response prompts him to add the proviso "with some enthusiasm."

First up on stage are the young members of Te Kohanga Reo o Ranana, who perform an endearing piece, based on a story written by their own Sade Anderson. According to British-born member Gerry Williamson, the kohanga reo is very much the heart and soul of Ngati Ranana.

"Some of the children are of Maori descent but are not born in New Zealand," she says.

"But even though they are born and raised overseas, they are still aware of their Maori heritage and are able to be taught Maori customs and culture."

Ngati Ranana - which translates as "descendants of London" - was first formed in the late 1950s with the intention of providing expat Maori with a place to learn te reo and cultural traditions such as haka and waiata. The club regularly performs at weddings and anniversaries, and for visiting dignitaries, politicians and film and sports stars.

"The concert is mostly a thank you to our friends and family and the people we've worked with throughout the year," says Aaron Hapuku, who hails from Christchurch but has called London home for more than five years. "The majority of people here live and work with English people, so this is an opportunity to get together and show them exactly what we do."


Originally, the concert was solely the province of Ngati Ranana but in recent years Pacific Island groups have also been included on the bill. "There's a major Polynesian presence in London now," says Hapuku.

"We've done what a lot of other cultures, such as the Muslims, have done in London. What we enjoy about London is that you can walk up the street and hear half a dozen conversations and only three or four of them will be in English.

Strangely, people in this melting pot tend to be more patriotic. They hang on to their traditions, religions and cultures."

The programme is evenly split between Maori and Pacific Island acts. London Fale's traditional Tongan and Fijian songs contrast neatly with Raymond's hip-hop slam-style spoken word poems, while the colourful dancers and thunderous log drums of Beats of Polynesia threaten to bring the house down. Finally, Ngati Ranana bring the show to a close with a stirring set of original song and dance that climaxes with a special haka written by Hapuku.

"I wanted to write something that reflected on those people who came across all those years ago and started Ngati Ranana as well as those who came before them, such as Hone Heke," he says. "When the British first went to New Zealand, all those early Maori chiefs came over to London to meet Queen Victoria and the British Crown. They made the presence of our people known to the rest of the world."

As the title of one of Ngati Ranana's waiatas written by John Dwyer suggests, the concept of turanga-waewae - having somewhere to call your own - is even more important to Maori living in London than it is to those living in Australia because of the distance from Aotearoa.

"Back home, turangawaewae is centred around a certain piece of land but, because we are in London, it is more about the place that we have to stand with each other," says Hapuku.