Singing about Niuean soldiers who volunteered
The song ‘Lologo tau kautau Niue ne oatu he Felakutau Fakamua he Lalolagi’ was sung by the men from the Pacific island of Niue who volunteered to join New Zealand’s Māori Contingent in 1916. They served in France alongside Maori troops in the newly formed Pioneer Battalion, and suffered greatly from conditions colder than they had ever imagined.
Year:1916 (Recorded 1976)
Location:Rotorua, New Zealand
Singing about Niuean soldiers who volunteered
The song ‘Lologo tau kautau Niue ne oatu he Felakutau Fakamua he Lalolagi’ was sung by the men from the Pacific island of Niue who volunteered to join New Zealand’s Māori Contingent in 1916. They served in France alongside Maori troops in the newly formed Pioneer Battalion, and suffered greatly from conditions colder than they had ever imagined.
Year: 1916 (Recorded 1976)
Length: 02:24
Credits: Transcription and translation of the lyrics kindly provided by Reverend Tom Etuata. Fakaaue lahi.
Source: Radio New Zealand Collection, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Catalogue Reference: 53450 SPFA - South Pacific Festival of Arts
Location: Rotorua, New Zealand
Image Title: Māori and Pacific Islanders march to war
Image Source: http://anzacsightsound.org/videos/maori-and-pacific-island-troops-at-war
Niue, along with the Cook Islands, had volunteered men for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force when war broke out. The offer was not taken up at first, until the high casualty rate from the Gallipoli campaign became apparent.
Māori MP Sir Māui Pōmare sailed to Niue and returned in October 1915 with the volunteers, who then spent the next few months training at Narrow Neck Camp in Auckland. The men had to adjust to learning English, colder weather, strange food and wearing heavy military uniforms and boots.
The Niuean volunteers sailed from Auckland with the 3rd Reinforcements for the New Zealand Māori Contingent, initially bound for Suez in Egypt. There they found the Māori Contingent had been disbanded since both the Contingent and the Otago Mounted Rifles had suffered heavy losses on Gallipoli. Their remaining members were formed into the new Pioneer Battalion.
In April 1916, the Niueans arrived in northern France as part of the newly formed New Zealand Pioneer Battalion. The conditions there were even harder than in New Zealand for the men from the Pacific. After training, the Pioneers were put to work digging trenches, often at night and under fire. The spring of 1916 was a cold one and many of the Niuean and Cook Islands men fell ill with influenza, measles and other diseases which they had not been exposed to back home. By the end of May most of them had been hospitalised and were sent to England, to the New Zealand hospital in the village of Hornchurch. Sadly, many of the men died overseas and never saw their island home again.
‘Lologo tau kautau Niue ne oatu he Felakutau Fakamua he Lalolagi’ (‘A song about the Niuean soldiers who went to battle in World War I’) is performed here by a Niuean group which took part in the South Pacific Festival of Arts in Rotorua in 1976.
Details:
Tau Māori mo e tau palagi
Kua uta e pule toka i fe
Kua uta toka i Kalipoli
To tau a tautolu mo Niu Silani
Poko hoko hai ka toka ki ai.
Kua fakamohogia mai haku ola
Mo ta tukulua ki Niue
Mo ta tukulua
Ki Niue e
Ki Niue nei
English Translation:
To all the Māori and the palagi
Where is our authority and power
Has it been moved to Gallipoli?
We’re here in New Zealand
To join you to fight this war
And hope to be victorious.
We're here to join forces with you
We will go to battle together
We hope for victory
Before we return to Niue
To Niue, to Niue our homeland.