Motions — Dame Kiri Te Kanawa—80th Birthday

We come now to a very special occasion for Parliament. In accordance with a determination of the Business Committee, I call on the Hon Paul Goldsmith to move a motion without notice.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I move, That this House recognise the achievements and career of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and congratulate her as she celebrates her 80th birthday.

Very few New Zealanders attain global pre-eminence in their field; even fewer hold on to that pre-eminence for decades. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was one such Kiwi. Her 80th birthday provides an opportunity for us to acknowledge her talent and her distinguished career. This House is a place of debate and confrontation, as well as cooperation, but it should also be a place where, from time to time, we pause to reflect on the great deeds of some of our fellow New Zealanders.

Kiri began her journey in Gisborne, then travelled with her adopted family to Auckland to learn her craft from Sister Mary Leo. In 1971, she made her Covent Garden debut as the Countess in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. From there, she ascended to the highest levels of international opera, thrilling audiences and reviewers alike. One wrote, “She makes hideously difficult music sound easy as pie.” When Charles and Diana married in 1981, before a global audience of 600 million, the royal family turned to Kiri Te Kanawa to sing Handel’s Let the bright Seraphim—the seraphim is a form of angel, Willie. I remember watching the wedding in the middle of the night and feeling the feeling of pride that came with seeing a Kiwi at the heart of such an event.

Honours have been heaped on her, including the Order of New Zealand and the Order of Australia. As well as thrilling audiences, she’s inspired many fellow New Zealanders to reach for the stars. She inspires, but she also helps. Twenty years ago, her Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation, as King Charles noticed, was established and has helped more than 40 singers succeed globally as well. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, we honour you today.

Mihi ki a koe e te whaea, tae mai nei whakarangatira i a mātou i tēnei wā, haere mai, haere mai, haere mai.

[Warm convivial greetings to you, madam. It is an honour to have you here with us today. Welcome, welcome, welcome.]

I rise to salute and celebrate the 80th birthday of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, on behalf of the Labour Party and particularly our Labour Māori caucus. And I emphasise “Māori” because Dame Kiri is probably the most famous Māori performer of the last two generations. She comes, of course, from two very humble tribes: the first humble one, Ngāti Maniapoto, and then the even more humble tribe of Ngati Porou, which, coincidentally, happens to be my iwi also, which, I think, makes us relations. But we do want to wish her happy birthday and, of course, thank her for her significant contribution to music and the fine arts as one of the great world sopranos.

We know, of course, of her beautiful renditions of great composers such as Puccini, Mozart, and Strauss, but it is in the Māori language area that I really want to thank her. Her Māori language album in 1999 and her 2014 album Waiata really elevated te reo Māori to the world stage. Beautiful songs like “Karu Karu”, “Pōkarekare Ana”, and “Tarakihi” are now absolutely huge hits around the world. So we thank her; we thank her for her contribution to our Māori language. And I was reminded by the Māori caucus that we’ve lost a few seats and we have an available spot in the North at the moment, Dame Kiri! So feel free to get in touch with me if you feel the need to join politics.

Tēnei te mihi ki a koe e te whāea, mihi nui ki a koe mō tō tautoko i tō tātou reo. E te māreikura, ko tēnei te mihi maioha ki a koe, ko koe tētahi o ngā tauira mana wahine i te ao Māori i te ao whānui. Kia ora tātou.

[This is a warm greeting to you, madam, and a thankyou also for supporting our language. Dear madam, this is a warm convivial greeting to you. You are a true reflection of Māori woman for the Māori people and everyone else as well. Cheers, everyone.]

E te Māngai, tēnā koe. E te māreikura, tēnei te mihi haritau ki a koe e te whāea, e te kuia. Nei rā taku hōnore te mihi ki a koe i tō huritau me ngā piki me ngā heke o tō haerenga, tēnā koe, tēnā koutou.

[Dear friend, happy birthday to you, dear matriarch, dear esteemed one. It is my honour to acknowledge you on your special born day and the trials and tribulations of your journey. Greetings to you.]

It was indeed my honour today to want to speak and put my hand up to be able to honour Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, who I’m not sure will remember, but back in, I think, the mid to late 1980s—my father is Rawiri Paratene. He directed and toured with you for a documentary that was made at the time, and I toured with him. I was on that road trip, which I believe might have started at Te Poho-o-Rawiri Marae, in Tūranga-nui. I think we travelled around Ūawa, Hauiti. We spoke to the Kerekere whānau, the Te Kani whānau, Bob Mahuika. In that documentary, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was also spreading waiata Māori in among the different captions and the different parts of that documentary.

I was a young girl, and I was very, very pleased today—I don’t think that I have had the chance to see you up close since those decades ago. It was one of the proudest moments for my father to be able to be involved with touring with you. We got to see a part of the countryside that we hadn’t seen before in many of the times.

I remember that we also went through the sort of Waitomo Caves area, and one of the biggest memories of that whole trip was, I remember, us also staying on Lake Taupō for some of your visit, and the interviews that we were doing. I remember us being able to fit in a trip to Waitomo Caves while we were in these areas.

I just remember the grace. I was a young girl who wasn’t fully steeped in the land of opera, but what I do remember is the grace with which Dame Kiri held what seemed to me like the privilege of returning home and being with whānau on marae. I remember the stays on the various marae, and the whānau being really clear that they wanted to source some caravans for you to also have some space, and we really wanted to honour that. But I just remember your grace and your wanting to be a part of all of these connections back to tūrangawaewae and whakapapa and whānau at the time.

My father will be so pleased to know that I have been able to raise that on the floor today, to congratulate you on your incredible international and decades of longstanding fame because of your unique talent and ability—fancy having one of our own wahine Māori right at the top of international and longstanding acknowledgment of talent in opera in the singing space. So it really is my pleasure. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Hari huritau [Happy birthday], Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. On behalf of ACT, I’d like to join with other party leaders in offering congratulations and respect and aroha to you, Dame Kiri, at the time of your 80th birthday and for your magnificent career.

I think it’s fair to say, as Paul Goldsmith has said, that Kiwis love it when one of us stands on top of the world, a pre-eminent for such a long period of time, but also, the fact that you did it at a time when most of us were best known for rugby, racing, and beer, showed the world and ourselves that we could be something different, that we could be at the top of the world in opera. I think it helped New Zealanders find out who we are in the world and not just stand proudly but stand in a different way. And for so many New Zealanders who stand differently in many respects of their life, I suspect that what you did was a revelation.

Other members have shared stories and anecdotes of their connection to you throughout their lives. I was unfortunate to have to wait until just this afternoon to meet you, but it was well worth it. And I hear stories about your very accurate shooting of pheasants with none other than the Queen. Now, you know, the Labour Party have offered you a membership, but could I just suggest that maybe they’re not the right party for you after all. And besides, I hate to think what they’d tax you!

Dame Kiri, you are a true gem and a treasure for our nation. We’re so honoured to have you here in our Parliament today. When we hear that soaring note—which I promise I will not repeat—at the end of the first line of “Pōkarekare Ana”, the hairs on the back of our necks stand up because it reminds us of who we are and the best of all New Zealand. Happy birthday and thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I begin my contribution on behalf of my leader, the Rt Hon Winston Peters, and the New Zealand First caucus in joining the House in celebrating Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s 80th birthday, acknowledging you here today. We are blessed to have you amongst us.

I begin with this whakataukī, Ko te pae tawhiti whāia kia tata, ko te pae tata whakamaua kia tina—seek out distant horizons and cherish those you attain. Today, as we celebrate your birthday, of the legendary New Zealand soprano who has made a remarkable rise to global fame, and started with your very first public appearance at the age of six years old on Gisborne’s radio station—boy, the careers that radio has launched! You sang an 1892 ditty called “Daisy Bell”. I don’t think anyone knows it, but once I say these lyrics, I’m sure many of us know the song:

Daisy, Daisy

Give me your answer do

I’m half crazy

All for the love of you

You also went on, in terms of music and your career, receiving New Zealand’s first ever gold disc for music sales—what an achievement.

Others in this House have acknowledged those incredible tohu, those attainments you achieved in your career, but one, for me, really stands out. This is my most favourite period drama ever created for television: Downton Abbey. You performed in that just so beautifully, playing the Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba, so I think it’s appropriate that we also acknowledge your film and stage performances alike. Not only that, you had all the cast and crew in tears throughout your practices for that show. That’s the power of your voice, to bring people to an emotional place in themselves. Not only that, you had two little dogs that you took on set, and then your third little dog was named Abbey once she was born, after Downton Abbey.

Kiri Te Kanawa, you have enjoyed one of the longest careers in operatic history—we acknowledge you for that—but you continue to make a difference by nurturing new talent, dedicating your time to training and the next generation of singers. As one of the world’s greatest opera singers, the iconic New Zealander of the Year in 2012, you never forgot where you came from. As a Māori opera singer, you brought a piece of New Zealand to the world in a vehicle that wasn’t Māori. We congratulate you for that.

So, to conclude, I’ll finish with a whakataukī from a beautiful book titled Mauri Ora: Wisdom from the Māori World, “Tohaina ō pāinga ki te ao”—share your gifts with the world. Those gifts we receive, and the impact that these gifts can have on the world, are amplified when we share them, when we share our knowledge with a new generation. So, today, in this House of Parliament, we celebrate our Dame, our Kahurangi, on her 80th birthday.

Tēnā koe. Waimarie ana au ki te tū ki te mihi atu ki tēnei tōku nei rangatira, e Kiri tēnā koe, e te Speaker tēnā koutou katoa. Tēnā koe e Kiri i tēnei rā whakanui i a koe kua eke ki te 80 tau. E te kura wahine o Ngāti Maniapoto and Willie’s crew, tēnā koutou.

[I am honoured to stand before you and acknowledge our esteemed leader, Kiri. Greetings to you, dear Speaker, and everyone present. Greetings to you all. Acknowledgments to you, Kiri, on this special day of yours turning 80. Dear madam of Ngāti Maniapoto and of Willie’s crew, warm convivial greetings.]

A woman of many accolades that, of course, would not fit into this brief address to the House. Heoi anō, what I can and do admire the most is your significant and sustained effort to foster the talent of the younger generations, particularly through the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation. You’ve inspired, as well as helped, young Māori invoke the ancestral magic that lies in their whakapapa, and provided the platform to expose that to the world. That is mana tuku iho [handed down], and that is also what we stand for as Te Pāti Māori: creating a mokopuna-centric world, where we can be whole, as opposed to lesser than. Of course, we need look no further than our darling of Te Tai Tokerau Kawiti Waetford, who will be gracing us shortly with his Māori magic. Nāu ia i ako i poipoi nō reira tēnā koe, hari rā whānau, e Kiri, tēnā koutou katoa.

[You nurtured and mentored him, and so thank you. Happy birthday, Kiri. Thank you, everyone.]

The question is, That this House recognise the achievements and career of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and congratulate her as she celebrates her 80th birthday.

Motion agreed to.

Waiata—“Pōkarekare Ana”