All Haami-less Fun
In an earlier blog I wrote about my friend Haami (pronounced Har-me) Moeke QSM. He’s a kaumatua. That is, a respected elder in the Maori community. I call him matua. I love it when we get together as we did last night, to have a korero (talk) and laugh. I feel like I step inside another generation when we talk, it’s a very humbling thing that.
I love it too when matua laughs, it lights up his face and the smile lines around his mouth go into overdrive just to keep up with the pace of the chuckles emanating from somewhere deep inside him. Our korero (talk) often runs the full gamut from what’s happening on the local scene, projects around Central and the wider Hawke’s Bay area to people, groups and what we ourselves are doing and involved in. I enjoy these times alot.
Matua on Music
Last night we got to talking about music. It was insightful for me. Haami plays saxophone, guitar, piano and one other instrument that escapes my memory just now. He tells me that back in his youth he played in a band and back then you had to be versatile. Playing four instruments made you ‘versatile’ in any band.
At the time Tui Teka was da bomb. He was fondly known here in New Zealand as Prince Tui Teka. “He was born in Ruatahuna, near Te Urewera. His parents were both musicians, and he learnt to play the guitar and saxophone at a young age. He moved to Sydney in the early 1950s and in 1959, Teka, Jonny Nicol, and Mat Tenana joined the The Royal Samoans and Maoris.
The band was later renamed Prince Tui Latui & The Maori Troubadours. In 1968 he joined the Maori Volcanics Showband, touring the Pacific for six years. In 1972 he began his solo career, he returned home releasing two albums; ‘Real Love’ and ‘Oh Mum’ as well as the Maori love song E Ipo.
Maori Volcanics singer Mahora Peters said, “He used to drive around in his big red 1964 Chevrolet Impala convertible with a TV in the back of the seat. Everyone knew when Tui and his fleet arrived in town, you could hear us coming a mile away. That was Tui: a big fanfare for a big man.”
Standing out in a Crowd
Haami said having a ‘gimmick’ or an ‘attention-getting detail’ about your act was what made you stand out in a crowd and being a member of a band during the Tui Teka heydays meant you really had to be on your game. So what did his band do?
They devised a choreographed piece whereby half the band members soft-shoe-shuffled in from the left-hand side of the stage and the other from the right. Meeting in the middle and depending on the instrument, the band member either blew into their saxophone or trumpet while the one to their right fingered the tune on the spatula or side keys.
If the instrument was a trumpet, they moved the valve slides to produce the notes. In the case of stringed instruments, the band member merely strummed or picked while the one to their right fingered the tune. I’d have been rolling in the aisle at such a sight, but then I’m easily amused!
Matua and Dialysis
I tell you this story because my friend Haami has been having dialysis treatment for some time and right now he’s organising the Christmas Party for all the patients and staff at the Hastings Hospital Dialysis Unit where he spends 3 days of his week on a dialysis machine. He’s planning to take some of that old-time showmanship among his friends he’s made there.
I admire him for doing it. I like, no, love that creating an atmosphere of fun is his main priority. Everyone having a go. Whether they can sing or tell a joke or something, it’s all Haami-less fun. I think Hunter “Patch” Adams would like my friend Haami a lot. Why? Because matua makes people smile. There isn’t an awful lot to smile about with that treatment.
“In medicine, dialysis (from the Greek “dialusis”, meaning dissolution, “dia”, meaning through, and “lysis”, meaning loosening) is primarily used to provide an artificial replacement for lost kidney function (renal replacement therapy) due to renal failure.
Dialysis may be used for very sick patients who have suddenly but temporarily, lost their kidney function (acute renal failure) or for quite stable patients who have permanently lost their kidney function (stage 5 chronic kidney disease). When healthy, the kidneys maintain the body’s internal equilibrium of water and minerals (sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulfate). Those acidic metabolism end products that the body cannot get rid of via respiration are also excreted through the kidneys.
The kidneys also function as a part of the endocrine system producing erythropoietin and 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol (calcitriol).” And while dialysis is something of an imperfect treatment to replace kidney function because it does not correct the endocrine functions of the kidney, it allows me to spend time, like tonight, with my friend matua. For that alone, I’m grateful.
Skokiaan
A while ago when we were catching up, matua played me Zimbabwean musician August Musarurwa’s song Skokiaan’, the recording made well known by Bill Haley and the Comets from Haley’s final album for Decca Records in 1959. The album was all instrumental recordings and made during a time when Haley was experimenting with new musical directions.”
Listening to my friend Haami play it, the sun streaming through his back windows and those throaty saxophone sounds filling his small lounge room, I reflect on how stepping inside his generation is not only humbling but fun too.
UPDATE: May 2022
Haami would have been humbled by this acknowledgement, a street named after him recognising his significant contribution in the Flaxmere community — Te Ara Moeke.
