Māori musical instruments: taonga puoro by name

Māori musical instruments are called taonga puoro ‘musical instruments’, and the best known are the kōauau ‘small cross-blown flute’, the pūtōrino ‘large flute’ and the pūrerehua ‘bullroarer’, whirled on a cord; Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, names the kōauau and the pūrerehua as the two whose sounds are now familiar to many New Zealanders. Around them stand the nguru ‘nose flute’, the pūtātara ‘conch shell trumpet’, the pūkāea ‘long wooden trumpet’, the gourd instruments, the spinning porotiti ‘humming disc’ and the rhythm instruments, the poi among them. Te Ara notes that there was no skin drum, and that the kū ‘one-stringed instrument’ was the only stringed instrument. This guide takes the names one at a time: what each word means in Te Aka Māori Dictionary, what the instrument is made of and how it is played, and what it sounds like in the words of the people who have played and described it. Then it tells how the instruments fell almost silent and were brought back in the late twentieth century, and where you can hear them today.

Updated 22 October 2026 · 15 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Māori examples play Papa Reo, the te reo Māori voice made by Te Hiku Media from recordings of native speakers.

What taonga puoro means

Taonga ‘treasure’ is the word for anything prized: Te Aka glosses it as property and goods, and also as treasure, “anything considered to be of value”, including objects, resources, ideas and techniques. Puoro ‘music’ is, as a verb, to sing and, as a noun, song, music, musical instrument. Put together, Te Aka defines taonga puoro simply as musical instrument, and Brian Flintoff’s 2004 book on them is subtitled “singing treasures”. Te Aka’s own example sentence for the phrase says where the instruments’ voices come from: the sounds of insects, birds, water, trees and the winds.

Te Aka gives a second phrase with the same meaning, taonga whakatangitangi ‘musical instrument’, built on whakatangitangi ‘to play an instrument’, the everyday verb for playing anything from a flute to a piano. And many of the wind instruments begin with the same syllable: Te Aka lists pū ‘pipe, tube, flute’, whose first meaning is to blow gently, as a prefix used for some wind instruments, and gives pūtōrino and pūtātara as examples. On its own, tōrino is twisted, spiral and also a name for the large flute; tātara is the knobbed triton, the sea snail whose shell becomes the trumpet.

Puoro or pūoro? Te Aka’s headword is puoro, with a short u, and Te Ara and AudioCulture write taonga puoro. You will also see taonga pūoro with a macron: in the example sentences Te Aka quotes under pūtātara and pūrerehua, in RNZ’s series He Ara Pūoro, and in the title of a Te Papa blog post whose text writes puoro. This guide follows Te Aka’s headword. Pūoru, with a long ū and a final u, is a different Te Aka word, sound, music, the one in kōpae pūoru, a music CD.

Taonga puoro list: the instruments by family

Te Ara groups the instruments the way Māori society groups people, in whānau ‘extended family’, each family descended from a god. The melodic instruments belong to the family of Rangi, the Sky Father, and the rhythmic ones to the family of Papa, the Earth Mother; Te Ara notes that rangi is also the Māori word for a tune. Some instruments belong to two families at once: the whistling gourd is a gourd, so it is Hinepūtehue’s, but it whirls through the air like the children of Tāwhirimātea, god of the winds. Te Ara also stresses that many instruments have several names, which vary with tribal dialect, so the names below are the ones Te Ara and Te Aka use, not the only ones.

In every table, the meaning is Te Aka’s, and the sound is described as Te Ara, Te Aka or Te Papa describe it.

The flutes: the family of Raukatauri

Raukatauri is the goddess of flute music, who, in Te Ara’s telling, loved her flute so much that she turned herself into a case moth so that she would never be parted from it. Te Aka’s name for the common bag moth is pūtōrino a Raukatauri ‘Raukatauri’s flute’. The flutes are the largest family, from 7 millimetres to more than 700 millimetres long.

Name	Te Aka’s meaning	Made of, and how it is played	Its sound, or its use
kōauau	cross-blown flute, smaller than a pūtōrino	Wood, kelp, albatross wing bone, human bone and probably moa bone (Te Ara); about 100 to 385 millimetres; most have three finger holes	Shaped by small movements of the tongue and lips; Te Ara says kōauau music always had words, and an expert could make them heard through the instrument
pūtōrino	the largest traditional flute, usually wooden, played as a flute or a trumpet; 30 to 60 centimetres	Tapers at both ends like the moth’s cocoon, with a mouthpiece at one end and a larger hole in the middle	Three voices: Raukatauri’s as a flute, a male voice as a trumpet, and through the central opening the voice of her daughter Wheke
nguru	nose flute: short, semi-closed, with a curved end, played with the mouth and nose	Stone, wood or whale tooth; Te Papa holds several made from sperm whale teeth	“A distinctive, delicate, watery sound”, in Te Papa’s words for a whale-tooth nguru
pōrutu	long flute, three to six finger holes near the bottom end	Longer than a kōauau, with the finger holes towards the far end	Te Ara: the sound jumps between low and high overtones. Te Aka’s example: one mellow voice, and a shrill second one when blown hard
whio	whistle (also the blue duck, named after the male’s call)	Te Ara pairs it with the pōrutu: longer than a kōauau	As the pōrutu
rehu	long flute with a closed top and a side blowing hole	Blown from the side, as a European flute is	Not described
pūmotomoto	long flute with a notched open top and a single finger hole; also the word for the fontanelle	Te Ara: no old example survives; it is known from tradition, and players in the 2000s made new ones	Chanted through over an unborn child, and after birth over the fontanelle, to implant songs and knowledge

The kōauau is the most common Māori flute, and it has a place in two other guides: the patupaiarehe were said to lure people away with its music (see Māori mythical creatures), and the longest place name in New Zealand tells of Tamatea playing his kōauau to his lost brother (see Māori place names). Te Ara adds that its finger holes were traditionally spaced by the distance between the owner’s knuckles, or by the pattern of a group of stars, and Te Aka’s word for a finger hole is wenewene.

Flute playing was prized. Te Ara says skilled playing made a performer irresistible, and tells the story of Tūtānekai, whose flute is said to have drawn Hinemoa across Lake Rotorua, with the Arawa elders’ twist that Tūtānekai could barely play and someone else was crouching in the bushes behind him. The story itself is told in Pōkarekare Ana.

The gourds: the family of Hinepūtehue

Hinepūtehue, a daughter of Tāne Mahuta, took the anger of her quarrelling brothers into herself and sang soothing songs, Te Ara says, and became the goddess of instruments made from the hue ‘gourd’.

Name	Te Aka’s meaning	Made of, and how it is played	Its sound, or its use
kōauau pongāihu	gourd flute, played with the nostril	A tiny gourd with the neck removed	“Delicate, almost magical” (Te Ara)
poi āwhiowhio	whistling gourd: a gourd with holes, on a string, twirled	Te Ara: a medium-sized gourd with two holes, used for bird calling	“A twittering song” (Te Ara); “like that of birds” (Te Aka)
hue puruwai, hue rarā	shaker; rattle	Gourds with their seeds left to dry, or replaced with pebbles, and shaken	Rhythm; Te Aka’s example says a large dried gourd with its seeds can sound like a waterfall
hue puruhau	large gourd played by blowing over the top opening	The largest gourds, tops cut off and seeds removed	“Deep resonant booming sounds, like the mating call of a kākāpō” (Te Ara)

Shells and trumpets: the family of Tangaroa

In Te Ara’s account, the next instruments in the old stories are two pūtātara, sounded to announce Tāne’s return from the heavens with the baskets of knowledge. A pūtātara joins the shell of Tangaroa, the sea god, to a wooden mouthpiece from Tāne’s forest, joining the two families in peace.

Name	Te Aka’s meaning	Made of, and how it is played	Its sound, or its use
pūtātara (also pūmoana)	conch shell trumpet with a short wooden mouthpiece	The narrow end of the shell is cut off and a mouthpiece added; Te Papa says the native triton was used, and large Pacific conches only in recent times	“A loud, clear note that carried a great distance” (Te Ara); blown across like a flute, a crying, female voice
tētere	flax trumpet, bugle: harakeke rolled into a funnel	A split flax blade wound into a cone; it lasted only while the leaf stayed green	Used like a bugle, to announce visitors and warn of attack
pūkāea	long wooden trumpet, with a carved mouthpiece	Two hollowed halves of mataī bound with kiekie roots; the flared end sometimes pegged to resemble a human throat	A war trumpet, sounded by watchmen; still used to open events

Te Papa’s guide to sounding a pūtātara gives the beginner’s method: hit the note with a good punch, hold it, and let it fade slowly, then shape it with a hand inside the mouth of the shell. It also warns that you will need strong lips.

Rhythm: the family of Papa

Te Ara says the heartbeat of Papatūānuku, the Earth Mother, is the basis of musical rhythm. Her family keeps time.

Name	Te Aka’s meaning	Made of, and how it is played	Its sound, or its use
tumutumu	beater, striker, used to set rhythms for chanting	Stone, wood or bone, struck with a stone or wooden striker	Te Ara: flakes of argillite held in the cupped palm give different pitches
tōkere	castanets	Small pieces of hard wood, bone or shell held in the palm by dancers	Played like castanets
pahū	gong, usually wooden; also any bang or boom	Te Aka: semi-hollowed logs between trestles, or pounamu slabs hung from trees	Te Aka’s example for its ‘booming’ sense: a booming that resounds to the four winds
pākuru	mouth resonator: a rod held at the teeth and tapped with another	Sometimes elaborately carved; the performers sang and danced as they tapped	Gilbert Mair, quoted by Te Ara, of skilled performers standing in a row: “remarkably melodious and pleasing”
rōria	mouth harp, jew’s harp; as a verb, to make a droning noise	A strip of supplejack held at the teeth and plucked	Te Ara: a skilled player could make it sound like speech
kū	one-stringed, bow-like instrument	Te Aka: supplejack with a flax-fibre string; tapped with a slender rod, the mouth as resonator	Te Aka: the string was also plucked and scraped
poi	a light ball on a string, swung to a song	Dried flax or raupō; the family of Hineteiwaiwa, goddess of women’s arts	Te Ara: rhythmic patterns and sounds from swinging and tapping

Te Ara calls the poi the most common rhythmic Māori instrument, and says the pākuru and the poi were the only instruments played in large groups. What a poi is and how it is used today is in kapa haka explained; the song is a separate story, told in Poi E.

Whirled through the air: the family of Tāwhirimātea

The children of the god of the winds have no bodies, Te Ara says, and the instruments that copy them have spiritual purposes: they carry the player’s hopes out on the four winds.

Name	Te Aka’s meaning	Made of, and how it is played	Its sound, or its use
pūrerehua	butterfly, moth; and bullroarer, an instrument of wood, stone or bone on a long string	Swung round on the end of its cord; Te Ara also calls it turorohu	“Eerie sounds” (Te Ara); Te Aka’s example says it is also named rangorango ‘blowfly’, because it sounds like one
porotiti (also kōrorohū)	spinning disc, humming disc, with two holes for the string	Spun by winding and unwinding the looped cord	Special rhythms as it winds and unwinds; Te Ara says its vibrations are said to clear infants’ sinuses and ease arthritis

The bullroarer was used to call rain. In the 1920s, Te Ara records, Ngāti Porou elder Tuta Nihoniho described an expert throwing ashes to the south, the rainy quarter, and swinging the instrument to make a dull roar, with an insulting karakia to make sure of it. Stories also tell of it summoning tears and enticing food from hiding places. Te Aka’s first meaning for pūrerehua is a moth or butterfly, the word in Māori birds and animals.

Taonga puoro sounds: what to listen for

Te Ara makes four points about the sound of the instruments as a whole:

No set scale. Early Māori music moved in microtones, steps smaller than a semitone, and a tune spanned only a few notes of the modern scale. The flutes, being cross-blown, let the player bend the pitch the way a singer does.
Every instrument has its own voice. Instruments are personified and given personal names, and a maker sets out to make each one slightly different. AudioCulture says Richard Nunns gave all his instruments names as people.
Soft and loud. Some have soft, private voices for a small house; others are loud enough for a large meeting house or for signalling outdoors.
Words come first. For earlier generations, Te Ara says, music did not really exist without words: the instruments supported and decorated songs. Paeroa Wineera, recorded on her kōauau in the 1960s, remembered it being used mainly to play the tune along with people singing waiata.

The sound also picked up new meanings once it was everywhere. AudioCulture notes that in the 1994 film Once Were Warriors the pūrerehua was heard as ominous, and that on East Coast iwi radio the kōauau accompanied death notices, so that some people there now regard it as tapu, for tangihanga only.

How the instruments fell silent, and came back

Te Ara lists the causes. Many of the ceremonies at which the instruments were played disappeared with Christianity; Māori musicians took up introduced instruments, so the European jew’s harp replaced the rōria, and banjos, pianos, brass, bagpipes and above all the guitar took the rest. The old instruments went to museums and collectors, and the next generations did not learn to play them. AudioCulture says they had not been widely heard for around 150 years.

The revival was led by three men. Hirini Melbourne (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu; 1949–2003) was a composer, singer and university teacher, the writer of songs such as Purea Nei (see Māori songs everyone knows), and said he was “intrigued by those instruments lying silent in museum cases”. Richard Nunns (1945–2021), a Pākehā teacher and jazz musician, brought a brass and flute player’s technique to instruments that had not been played for generations. Brian Flintoff, a Nelson carver and teacher, made the instruments; he also wrote Te Ara’s story on them. Their group became Haumanu, which Te Ara says means both “breath of birds” and “revival”; Te Aka’s haumanu is to revive, restore to health.

The three came together at a gathering at Te Araroa on the East Coast (its year is one of the points in the table below), where, AudioCulture says, the National Museum’s instruments were brought in the boot of a car for people to handle and play. Kuia came up after performances in tears, remembering fragments they had forgotten. In 1990 Melbourne invited Nunns to Waikato University, and in June 1994 they released Te Kū Te Whē on Rattle Records, recorded in a day and a half with some 19 instruments. Te Ara calls it the first CD devoted entirely to the instruments; AudioCulture says it sold around 12,000 copies and went gold in 2003, and Te Ara quotes the verdict that it became “the soundtrack to just about all media allusions to the Māori side of national life”. Melbourne and Nunns were inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2009, and Nunns and Flintoff received the Queen’s Service Medal the same year.

Where the accounts differ

Point	One account	Another
The spelling	taonga puoro: Te Aka’s headword, Te Ara, AudioCulture	taonga pūoro: RNZ’s He Ara Pūoro, a Te Papa blog title, and example sentences quoted in Te Aka
When the three met at Te Araroa	1991, at a hui held by Nga Pua Waihanga, the Māori Artists and Writers Society (Te Ara)	1984, at a wānanga (AudioCulture’s profile of Richard Nunns)
The 1994 album’s title	Te kū te whe, “loud and soft” (Te Ara)	Te Kū me te Whē: kū and whē are words for sound that appear in the creation story (Piripi Walker, AudioCulture); Te Kū Te Whē on its Nunns profile
The first album of the instruments	Te Kū Te Whē, 1994 (Te Ara; AudioCulture’s Nunns profile)	Piripi Walker’s Melbourne profile also names Toiapiapi, 1991, an album featuring traditional instruments
Is the nguru a nose flute?	Te Aka: played with the mouth and nose; Te Ara: some can be played with the nose, which gives extra prestige because that breath is more sacred	Te Papa: often called a nose flute, but most commonly played with the mouth
Finger holes on the gourd nose flute	Three (Te Ara)	Two (Te Aka)
The pūkāea’s length	Up to 2.5 metres (Te Ara)	1 to 2 metres (Te Aka)
The poi āwhiowhio’s gourd	Medium-sized; Te Ara spells it poi a whiowhio	Small (Te Aka)

Where to hear them

RNZ, He Ara Pūoro (A Pathway of Song). Richard Nunns plays instruments from his collection and then talks about each one, from the kōauau and pūtōrino to the pūrerehua, porotiti, pahū pounamu and kū, recorded on location at Zealandia, the Wellington wildlife sanctuary. It is the quickest way to hear each name on this page as a sound.
Te Kū Te Whē (Rattle, 1994), Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns, and their last album together, Te Hekenga-ā-rangi (2003), with Aroha Yates-Smith.
Te Papa. The national museum holds old instruments, among them nguru made from sperm whale teeth; in 2010 its blog described the museum’s own taonga puoro group, with Nunns as its mentor.

A new generation plays them now: AudioCulture names Horomona Horo, Warren Warbrick, James Webster, Ariana Tikao and Alastair Fraser among the players who carried the work on, and Te Papa’s blog describes Pūoro Tū, a festival of the instruments held in Wellington in 2021.

Words to keep

Two sentences from Te Aka’s examples, both about the instruments:

Ko te nuinga e toru ngā wenewene. ‘The majority have three finger holes.’ (Te Aka, citing Toi, 1991)
He mea hanga te kōauau pongāihu i te hue ririki, ā, whakatangitangihia ai mā te ihu. ‘The kōauau pongāihu is made from a small gourd and is played with the nose.’ (Te Aka)

The words that recur across the whole family are pū ‘pipe, flute’, hue ‘gourd’, tangi ‘to sing, make a sound’, oro ‘sound, note’ and whakatangitangi ‘to play an instrument’. To learn the everyday words underneath them, our own course starts with the most common, one lesson a day.