Waiata tautoko: what they are and which to sing

A waiata tautoko is the song a group sings straight after one of its speakers has finished a speech, to back up what was said: tautoko ‘to support’ is Te Aka Māori Dictionary’s word for to support, agree or advocate. AUT puts it in one line: a song performed after each speech to support and enhance the mana of the speaker. The easy ones that published guides name for this job are short: Te Aroha, Ehara i te Mea, E Toru Ngā Mea, Mā Wai Rā, Purea Nei, Hutia te Rito and E Tū Kahikatea. Ehara i te Mea is named for tangi as well as welcomes, laments such as E Pari Rā belong to mourning, and at a graduation the institution usually has its own song. Below is the list with who wrote each song and who recommends it, then what a waiata tautoko is for, who leads it, which song suits which occasion, and how a team can learn one.

Updated 22 October 2026 · 11 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.

Waiata tautoko examples: the short list

Every song here is in the list because a university, a council or a song archive names it for supporting a speaker or for the occasion given. The University of Otago marks the songs on its waiata page that are, in its words, appropriate to be sung to support a speaker during a pōwhiri or mihi whakatau; that is what “Otago” means in the last column.

Song	What the title means	Who made it	Who names it, and for what
Te Aroha	love	Morvin Simon, 1983 (Wanganui Chronicle; Tauranga City Council)	Massey and AUT: any pōwhiri; Otago; Tauranga City Council: any occasion; Te Taura Whiri: an easy waiata for a group
Ehara i te Mea	it is not (a thing of recent times)	Eru Timoko Ihaka, early 1900s (NZ Folk Song; Tauranga)	Otago; NZ Folk Song and Tauranga: pōwhiri, tangihanga and other marae gatherings
E Toru Ngā Mea	three things	a hymn on 1 Corinthians 13:13	Otago; NZ Folk Song: beginning a communal project
Mā Wai Rā	who will (take responsibility)? — from Otago’s translation	Henare Te Owai (Otago)	Otago
Purea Nei	cleansed	Hirini Melbourne (Otago)	Otago
Hutia te Rito	pluck out the centre shoot (of the flax)	Mana Tepana (Otago), on an old proverb	Otago
Whāia te Iti Kahurangi	pursue what is precious	Godfrey Pohatu (Otago)	Otago
E Tū Kahikatea	stand, kahikatea	Hirini Melbourne (Tauranga)	Tauranga: a waiata tautoko for all marae and pōwhiri settings
E Pari Rā	flowing in (of the tide)	Paraire Tomoana, published January 1918 (DNZB)	a lament, written for soldiers lost in battle (DNZB)

None of these songs’ words is printed here unless the song is long out of copyright. Otago’s waiata page and Tauranga City Council’s waiata booklet print the words of most of them with translations, and NZ Folk Song adds the tunes and chords; all three are linked in the sources below. Te Aroha, Purea Nei and Tūtira Mai are explained in Māori songs everyone knows.

What is a waiata tautoko?

Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, describes the moment in its account of the pōwhiri: at the end of each speech, the speaker and a number of supporters sing a waiata ‘song’, often a traditional one. In its story of traditional songs, it lists this among the jobs a song does: a waiata may be used to support a whaikōrero ‘formal speech’ on the marae, or sung as an expression of grief at the loss of a loved one. Where each speech falls in the welcome is set out in Pōwhiri explained.

The name says what the song is for. Besides the verb, Te Aka gives tautoko as a noun, support or backing, and as an exclamation, agreed, I support that. AUT and the University of Auckland call the song a waiata tautoko. The University of Otago uses another name, waiata kīnaki ‘relish, embellishment’: a song which relishes the speech-making. Te Aka’s own example of the verb kīnaki is a Māori-language newspaper of 1902 reporting that sermons were complemented with song.

Why it matters is put most plainly by Massey University and Otago, in almost the same words: the quality and intent of the waiata is critical, because it upholds the mana of the group singing it and embellishes what was said in the speeches.

Who chooses it, and who leads it

The song belongs to the speaker’s side. Te Ara says a visiting group usually organises its caller and its speakers, collects its koha and decides the order of speakers before it goes on, and that is the time to settle the song as well. AUT tells new students that during its pōwhiri they will be asked to join the waiata tautoko for the visitors, and Massey advises walking up to stand behind your speaker to sing, if you can.

The person who leads a song is its kaea ‘leader of a haka or waiata’, in Te Aka’s word. No reputable source found lays down who that must be for a waiata tautoko, and practice differs from group to group, so this guide does not invent a rule. The practical answer for a workplace or a class is to agree, before the day, which song and who will start it, and to have at least two confident voices so the song does not depend on one person.

Waiata for work: welcomes and new staff

A pōwhiri is no longer kept for the marae. Te Ara notes that in recent years it has also been used to welcome a new employee to a workplace, and a welcome with speeches held away from a marae is often a mihi whakatau, which is explained in Māori words at work. Either way there will be speeches, and every speech needs its song, whether your team is doing the welcoming or being welcomed.

That is why workplaces adopt songs of their own. Tauranga City Council’s staff booklet names three as its “TCC anthems”, widely used at the council, and highly recommends that staff learn them along with the songs of the local iwi of Tauranga Moana:

E Tū Kahikatea. E tū ‘stand’, and the kahikatea ‘white pine’, a tall tree of swampy ground. The booklet calls it a Hirini Melbourne classic and a waiata tautoko that may be sung in all marae and pōwhiri settings, in a version adapted for its own region.
Hoki Hoki Tonu Mai. A call to the spirit of a loved one to return. The booklet says it was first a lament of young women whose husbands or lovers had died, and became, to the tune of “Little Brown Jug”, a song of hope for the men going to war in Europe; the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography lists it among the well-known songs of Paraire Tomoana.
Te Aroha. The four-line song most groups learn first, explained in Māori songs everyone knows.

One fact about Te Aroha belongs on this page, because it was a workplace song from the start. The Wanganui Chronicle reported in 2012 that the composer and kapa haka leader Morvin Simon of Whanganui wrote it in 1983, to soothe the situation at a fractious hui of workers’ collectives, and that it is often sung by groups going on to a marae. Tauranga City Council’s booklet also credits it to him, as the first verse of a longer song.

Waiata tautoko for a pōwhiri on a marae

On a marae, Te Ara says, the songs after speeches are often traditional ones. A visiting group that has only one short song is still welcome to sing it: Massey and AUT both name Te Aroha as a simple waiata that suits any pōwhiri. A group that visits marae often should work towards a second, fuller song from the Otago list, such as Ehara i te Mea or Mā Wai Rā, the second of which asks who will take responsibility for the marae now and answers: through what is right, through truth and through love.

Waiata tautoko for a tangi

A tangihanga ‘funeral’ is where waiata matter most. Te Ara says that as visitors are welcomed onto the marae over the days of a tangihanga, speeches, songs and chants are exchanged. Te Aka defines the waiata tangi ‘lament’ as a song of mourning with no set actions, sung especially at tangihanga, and calls it the most numerous class of the traditional songs. These are the ones the sources name:

Ehara i te Mea. NZ Folk Song and Tauranga’s booklet both describe it as an easy-to-learn waiata commonly sung at pōwhiri, tangihanga and other marae gatherings, and NZ Folk Song credits the words to Eru Timoko Ihaka of Te Aupouri (1876–1937), a chief and lay reader of Te Kao. It opens Ehara i te mea nō nāianei te aroha ‘love is not a thing of recent times’, and goes on to say that love was handed down by the ancestors. NZ Folk Song prints nō nāianei, Otago nō inaianei; both mean of the present time. NZ Folk Song adds that being short, it is usually sung twice, with more harmony the second time.
E Pari Rā. The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography says Paraire Tomoana published the words of his most famous song in January 1918, as a lament for the soldiers lost in battle, and that the Royal New Zealand Navy later adopted its tune as its slow march. It opens E pari rā e ngā tai ki te ākau ‘the tides flow in to the shore’: Te Aka’s pari is to come in or flow, of the tide.
Tiaho Mai Rā. NZ Folk Song lists it in its top twenty Māori songs with the note “at tangihanga”, and says Keta Kaiwai-Herbert, a teacher at a Wellington kura kaupapa, wrote it in 2009 for a much-loved Year 13 student, Maria Te Aorere Ward. It calls on the morning star as a sign that love does not turn away; Te Aka spells the verb tīaho, to shine.

If you are going to a tangi with your workplace, sing what your group already knows well, Te Aroha or Ehara i te Mea, rather than attempting a lament for the first time. What to say to the family, and what the words on the cards mean, is in condolences in Māori.

Waiata for graduation

At a graduation the song is usually chosen for you: the institution has its own, and the printed programme or the university’s website gives the words. Learn that one before the day. The published examples:

Victoria University of Wellington. At Te Hui Whakapūmau, its graduation ceremony based on tikanga Māori, the university says “Kāore Taku Raru”, the official waiata of Te Herenga Waka Marae, is sung during the pōwhiri onto the marae, and it offers the words for download.
Massey University. Its pōwhiri page says the university has its own waiata, “Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa”, alongside Te Aroha.
Wintec. Its 2026 graduation programme has three waiata: “Waikato te Awa” and “He Aha Kei Taku Uma” during the ceremony, and Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi at the close, before the final blessing.

Tūtira Mai is a good choice for a family or a class that wants to sing for a graduate: Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori suggests it, with Te Aroha, as an easy waiata for a group to sing together, and it closes Wintec’s ceremony.

Waiata for farewells

A farewell has speeches too, and the songs after them follow the same rule: sing something your group knows. The song most New Zealanders associate with leaving is Pō Atarau, once sung on the wharves as ships left. The words for the speeches themselves, and how a farewell is run, are in poroporoaki: Māori farewells.

How to learn a waiata tautoko as a team

None of the sources sets out a method, so these are practical suggestions, each tied to what the sources do describe:

Start with the song your hosts or your organisation already use. Tauranga City Council asks its staff to learn the council’s songs and the local iwi’s; universities publish theirs. A song the hosts know is one they can sing with you.
Practise little and often. Tauranga City Council’s booklet was compiled for Waiata Wēnerei, Wednesday waiata, the council’s own singing sessions. A few minutes every week does more than one rehearsal the day before.
Learn what each line means first. The sources that print the songs print translations beside them, and a song sung with understanding is easier to remember and to pronounce. The vowels and the tapped r every song depends on are in the Māori pronunciation guide.
Learn from a recording. Otago’s waiata page has sound files or clips for several of its songs, and NZ Folk Song gives tunes and guitar chords. Ehara i te Mea has two tunes, NZ Folk Song notes: a quick children’s one and a slower, more ornate one that adult choirs now sing. Agree which one your group sings.
Have two songs ready. One short one everybody knows, and one fuller one for a marae or a tangi, so that a group with several speakers is not singing the same four lines all morning.
Stand up and move. Massey’s advice is to walk up and stand behind your speaker if you can; practise doing that too, so the group is not hesitating when the speech ends.

Two of the proverbs behind the songs above, about the centre shoot of the flax and pursuing what is precious, are explained in Māori proverbs. The everyday words in all of these songs, aroha ‘love’, tika ‘right, correct’, pono ‘true’ and tātou ‘all of us’, are taught in our own free te reo Māori course, with recordings in a native te reo voice.

Where the accounts differ

Question	One account	Another account
What the song after a speech is called	waiata tautoko (AUT, University of Auckland)	waiata kīnaki, a song that relishes the speech-making (University of Otago)
Where Hoki Hoki Tonu Mai came from	one of Paraire Tomoana’s well-known songs (Dictionary of New Zealand Biography)	first a lament of young women for husbands or lovers who had died, set to “Little Brown Jug” in the Second World War (Tauranga City Council)
The first line of Ehara i te Mea	nō nāianei (NZ Folk Song)	nō inaianei (University of Otago)
Who made Hutia te Rito	Mana Tepana (University of Otago)	its words are an old proverb, which Te Aka quotes from a 1990 source
Who wrote Te Aroha	Morvin Simon, 1983 (Wanganui Chronicle, 2012; Tauranga City Council)	no composer given by Massey, AUT or Otago, which print the words