January 16 - Puha and Pakeha

So I'm going to start this post by saying first that I had family on both sides of the Land Wars in Taranaki in the 1860's and I'm equally proud of all the various races that make up my ancestry.

Second I'm posting this in a spirit of fun, so please don't be offended, just enjoy the song as the bit of humorous Non-PC NZ Music History that it is.

As a kid I loved this song for its melody, its rhythm and beat and the way the words just roll off the tongue. The cousins and I would all beg our Uncles to sing it to us at family gatherings!

For my non-Kiwi friends 'puha' is a kind of salad green that grows wild in NZ and 'Pakeha' is the Maori word for anyone who is not Maori. It is most commonly used to refer to anyone who is of British descent, but used correctly it can equally refer to European, Asian, African or any other '...an' you can come up with. Essentially it means 'other people.' While the word 'Maori' means 'ordinary or normal people.' I really like this, that when foreigners first came to NZ they were immediately recognised as people - different, but people nonetheless.

If you want to look up any of the other Maori words in the song here is a link to the Maori Dictionary.