National decree for climate action waiata

Māori culture and its strong land connection spurred Lovinia Pluck to write a lyrical call for climate change action.

The Nayland College Year 13 student recently won the Junior Maioha Award for best song written in te reo Māori in this year’s Lion Foundation National Secondary Schools Songwriting Competition.

Lovinia says her winning waiata, titled E tū ngā tāngata, roughly translates to ‘stand up and take action to reduce the effects of climate change’.

She says the te reo Māori lyrics honour the strong connection its people have to the land which she hopes will also strengthen the need for climate change interlude.

“Māori culture is so connected to the land and it’s so important… so I think that’s why I wanted to write about climate change specifically in te reo Māori,” she says.

“One of the lyrics translates roughly to ‘the colours leak from the choral like blood coming out of a cloth’, so there’s metaphors in there describing climate change.

“I also sing about how the world is so beautiful and we are from the earth and it’s our duty to protect it,” Lovinia adds.

“At some point [in the song] I also mention, ‘don’t leave this up to the young people’, it’s all of our duty.

“At the end of the song I have a B section where I’m singing about being afraid for our future and I’m afraid for our children.”

Lovinia, who had previously written, or partially written, ten songs, says she began learning te reo Māori in 2021 to understand the words after performing kapa haka.

“It was almost like it was my duty for someone who isn’t Māori in bicultural New Zealand … and I feel like [the language] will become more prominent as more young people learn it,” she says.

“I want to study psychology and Māori at university, and I want to become fluent, that’s my goal.”

Lovinia says she was tuned to enter the songwriting competition, which is held online, by her psychology teacher, Gaye Bloomfield, and was “really pleased” to be recognised.

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“I got an email saying I had won, and [the judges] just said that it was a beautiful song and that they really loved it,” she says.

“I thought it would be a really good opportunity for me to get to record it professionally because I have to do that for my school assignments… and maybe it’s something I want to do with my other songs in the future.”

Lovinia says her song, along with the other category winners in the competition, are to be made into an album for the public, which will be released later this year.

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