Māori Purposes Fund Board recordings
Scope and Contents
The recordings consist primarily of traditional waiata, together with speeches, hymns and action songs, and run to approximately 60 hours of content.
Dates
- 1953 - 1958
Creator
- Ngata, Wiremu Tuakana (1907-1980) (Recordist, Person)
To request or comment
To request access to items in this collection, or to provide comment or corrections, please complete the following: Archive of Māori and Pacific Sound request form
Biographical / Historical
The Māori Purposes Fund Board (MPFB) was established in 1934 to administer the Māori Purposes Fund. This Fund was intended to provide grants and loans for a range of activities for the benefit of Māori, one of which being the recording of Māori and Polynesian songs and chants (Māori Purposes Fund Act 1934-35).
The MPFB purchased a tape recording machine in 1952 with the initial intention of recording all the songs mentioned in Sir Apirana Ngata’s work Ngā Moteatea. Recordings were made in association with the New Zealand Broadcasting Service (NZBS) by Mr Wiremu T. Ngata between 1953 and 1958, in the East Coast, Northland and other tribal areas, far exceeding the initial brief.
Initially the material was held for safe keeping by the Turnbull Library, with selected copies made for NZBS for broadcast.
In 1977 the recordings were transferred from the Turnbull Library to the Archive of Māori and Pacific Sound, where certain tapes were identified as missing. Fortunately, it was possible to fill these gaps by obtaining copies from the NZBS holdings. Once all gaps were filled the material was arranged into recording date order.
Extent
1.2 metres (120 7" tape.)
Language of Materials
Maori
English
Arrangement
Original arrangement of recordings has been retained from the published catalogue: by date recorded and region. The original numbering system has also been retained as closely as possible, with original numbers annotated in notes.
File-level records represent a single tape reel, with the individual items being the tracks which make up that tape.
Other Finding Aids
Original finding aid published as the 'Catalogue of Maori Purposes Fund Board recordings', ISBN: 09598000530.
Custodial History
Prior to 1977 the original 7” tapes were held for safe-keeping by the Turnbull Library. Selected dubbings were made during this period by the NZBS and held with Radio New Zealand. These copies were used to replace missing tapes identified on transfer of the original recordings to the Archive of Māori and Pacific Sound.
Multiple physcial instances which appear with prefixes of MAS, MT, and MPF represent the tapes from which the full set of recording sessions was re-created.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Transferred from the Māori Purposes Fund Board in 1977.
- Title
- Inventory of the Māori Purposes Fund Board recordings.
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- William Hamill
- Date
- September 2022
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Archive of Māori and Pacific Sound, University of Auckland Repository
Level 3, General Library
5 Alfred Street
Private Bag 92109
Auckland 1010 New Zealand
+64 9 923 5008
amps@auckland.ac.nz