In the summer of 2003 I discovered something that made me dream of NZ again. I have read about an open-air-concert of a music-group from NZ. Their name was "Moana & the tribe" and because of the rareness of such exotic concerts I had to see it of course.

I was looking forward to this concert really hard. I went to "Burg Wilhelmstein" close to Aachen where the concert was taking place. I was really excited when I was waiting to get into the castle because we were able to hear parts of the sound-check and it sounded very interesting. The following concert was absolutely gorgeous!

The members of the group who visited Germany on their tour were: Moana Maniapoto (Leadsinger), Trina Morgan, Amiria Reriti (background singer), Cadzow Cossar, Pete Hoera (Guitars), Rangi Rangitukunoa (traditional instruments, Hip-hop) and last but not least Paora Sharples, Scott Morrison and Reweti Te Mete (dancers/warriors).

The group at "Burg Wilhelmstein" was a little bit smaller because Scott and Amiria were missing.

Just by looking at the members you can guess that it is a very eventful concert. The lyrics of a few songs is in English but most of the lyrics are in Maori. But it doesn't matter at all if you do not understand the words because the music itself is absolutely breath-taking and beautiful. I am sure that's the reason why the songs are so beautiful. The songs combine a lot of different kinds of music. Sometimes a little bit of jazz, a little bit of Hip-hop. Sometimes you hear a piece of pop-music or a ballad. Now and then there are traditional instruments in the songs especially all kinds of flutes. I have to say that rap in Maori sounds quiet interesting! *g* The job as rapper and break-dancer is the job of Rangi by the way….

But the most interesting parts of the show are the dancing- performances. That's on the one hand the poi-dance of the women (mostly performed by the background singers) and on the other hand the haka of the men. These parts are integrated in the songs so that they bring additional rhythms into the songs. And of course they please the eye of the female audience! The dance-performance with the traditional armour e.g. the taiaha are really breath- taking. For me the highlight of the whole show is the "Haka" which is performed only by the dancers. *sigh*

And of course the breakdance-performance of Rangi is very nice as well.

The lyrics of the songs contain topics around their country, the people and of course maori-culture (e.g. the language and the moko, the traditional way of tattooing).

You should know that the word "tattoo" does not reflect the spirituality of the moko. For the maori-people it is much more than just wearing a nice design on their skin. The moko of a maori is absolutely unique because it reflects his genealogy and his position in the community. For a layman the mokos might look all the same because all of them use the spiral as basic design. But every form has a special meaning and the moko is design for this certain person. I guess it will be possible to get a tattoo with maori-design but the meaning will never be the one of a moko. For the maori-people it reflects their identification with their culture. Although there are only a few people left who wear a moko in their face.

Which shape and size those mokos can get you will surely see if you watch the dancers at the concert because one of them (Reweti Te Mete) wears one you can't fail to notice! By the way: Moana has one on her wrist as well.

There are 3 CDs from Moana in the meanwhile. The first two of them are published as "Moana and the moahunters":


Tahi (2002)
Rua (1998)


Die actual CD of "Moana & the tribe" is called:

Toru (2002)

For the very curious of you: You can order them on the homepage of Sol de sully or at the page ofNeuseelandhaus. There is a DVD of the tour 2002 (Live & proud) as well which you can order on these homepages as well.

Moana has her own homepage as well. Just in case that you are curious and want to know more. The page is in English of course and very interesting. Moana posts news on her page regularly.

Here is the link: Moanas Homepage

After I had seen this concert I had to watch them again and drove to their last concert of the tour in Gelsenkirchen. This time I brought my parents as well who loved the concert, too. There I took the pictures you can see on this page (with permission of Moana).

Moana have been on tour in Germany this year as well but only very short time. So I wasn't able to watch them because I had to write several tests in that time. Pity! So I have to hope that they will be back in 2005.