Taonga Moana: A love letter to the oceans [National tour]

Abstract

Taonga Moana Programme Notes The initial idea of Taonga Moana was an inspiration drawn from conversations with many people about how our oceans must become sanctuaries and the need for us all to care of them. “Aranga, Aranga” comes the cry; perhaps, if we followed the kuaka (godwit) on its Spring journey South from its breeding nests in the great Siberian and Alaskan tundra to the rich feeding grounds provided by Aotearoa’s tidal flats and coastal marshes, we could embrace the oceans and thank them for allowing the earth to exist. Taonga Moana is just that; a love song to the oceans. The journey, sung, staged and with audio and visual design, is a series of musical and visual snapshots from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Oceans and Antarctica. In response to the kuaka, Hamilton’s Karakia of the Stars, to the Sacred One, to the magellanic cloud, cries out for the new year’s growth to flourish, the Matariki, for the waters to provide. The Seafarers and Whales The kuaka takes us first from an inlet on Baffin Island in the North Atlantic. Frozen in Frobisher Bay is the tale of the captain of a whaling ship who decides to push the late summer season to catch “one more whale”, but finds himself and his crew frozen in for the Winter. The sailors may never see their families again. In Mäntyjärvi’s work, commissioned for this programme, the tenth century text speaks about the spirit of The Seafarer who journeys over the whale’s path across the waves of the northern seas; in his song, expressed in folk and contemporary style, he warns “ I do not believe the world’s riches will last for ever.” And as we “listen closer to the water” we hear The Sorrow Song of Whales. In his piece, arranged for Voices NZ, Canadian composer, Jeff Enns asks us to seek forgiveness from the whales in the waters of the Atlantic, to listen and learn from them, to stop the blasting and slow the ships, for “we are all connected…. Right whales and dolphins, we sing for you”. Lament and guilt: A lament from the “Lacrymosa” our own guilt “homo reus”, and the horrific tales from Warren Maxwell’s Hind Mahasagaar ,from the Indian Ocean take the journey onward; the waters glows with the sinking bones of men upon the ocean floor. From the edges of the Indian and Pacific Oceans there is a human response, the Malay dance, inspired by an Indonesian Malay scale, explores the sounds of the human voice and the beat of our souls, Hentakan Jiwa. But what is our response? “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” Mother Teresa’s words expressed so eloquently in Ešenvalds A Drop in the Ocean, remind us of our inadequacies and yet the same time the necessity for us to act. The Whales Navigate The kuaka is exhausted, as she has travelled the eight thousand kilo=metre from Alaska and reaches Aotearoa” Home at last” The Observer in the Magellanic Cloud looks down from the heavens upon the Matariki, and the new growth. And Warren Maxwell’s final thoughts are of the tides of icy shards, Te Tai Uka a Pia, of the frozen southern sea; of “the intrepid seafaring protagonist Ui Te Rangiora (650 AD) who sailed from the Arctic Ocean, though the lifeless Atlantic Ocean across to the acidic Indian Ocean, to the plastic-filled Pacific and to the last sanctuary on the planet, the great Southern Ocean. The kuaka can go no further south, so she hands over the role of navigator to the Baleen whale (Tohorā) who traverse the southern continent. UI Te Rangiora follows Tohorā south looking for the deity Hine Moana who dwells in the Southern Ocean. It is she who will give Ui te Rangiora the final stanza of the ancient karakia needed that will prevent Vishnu from unleashing destruction on the world.” Repertoire: THE CALL OF THE KUAKA KARAKIA OF THE STARS – David Hamilton (New Zealand) FROBISHER BAY – James Gordon arr. Diane Loomer (Canada) THE SEAFARER – Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (Finland)* THE SORROW SONG OF WHALES – Jeff Enns (Canada) Hind Mahaasaagar – Warren Maxwell (New Zealand)* HENKATAN JIWA Ken Steven (Indonesia) A DROP IN THE OCEAN – Eriks Esenvalds (Latvia) OBSERVER IN THE MAGELLANIC CLOUD – Mason Bates (US) HEI TE TAI TONGA – Warren Maxwell (New Zealand)* * world premiere