AUT students star in love letter to NZ
Tears rolled down Jana Nee’s face as she watched the extraordinary live recording and filming take place at the Auckland Town Hall.
Singer-songwriter Marlon Williams was singing Pōkarekare Ana with students from Tītahi ki Tua (the AUT Māori Students Association) providing the backup vocals.
They were recording the much-loved waiata Māori for an Air New Zealand commercial.
“It was a wairua (spiritual) experience,” says Jana, Pou Āwhina (support person) for the students in the Office for Māori Advancement.
“I cried during the filming of it because of the huge amount of pride I had for our students who were putting themselves out there on such a big platform.”
“It was so lovely to watch them, in their element, singing a song that’s such a core part of Aotearoa’s history – that was going to go out to the world.”
Our students were clearly feeling the magnitude of this moment too.
Look for Matariki Ngatai-Callaghan, who has just graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, when the camera zooms in on her face at the one-minute mark of the video below.
Matariki conveys a depth of emotion that some might say reflects the unshakeable pride, and unmistakable mood, of a nation.
The live recording of the song, and subsequent filming of it, took a day to complete at the Auckland Town Hall.
Jana and the students had already spent a day with Marlon at Roundhead Studios in Auckland (owned by fellow singer-songwriter Neil Finn) learning to sing the notes in the “old-school way” Marlon wanted.
“We had to take a step back into the past and sing the song in its original style,” says Jana.
“Marlon sang the notes to us, in the arrangement that was his vision for the song, and we repeated them back to him.”
“In doing so, we felt like we were getting a mentoring session.”
“We learnt so much.”
Both Universal Studios and Air New Zealand collaborated to film the new brand video, which was released late last year, after the national airline decided to ground their popular safety videos and focus more on selling New Zealand to the world.
Once they had Marlon onboard, they asked Tītahi ki Tua to be the backing vocalists.
“We didn’t have to audition, Marlon had already heard us perform and knew we could do the mahi,” says Jana.
That opportunity had come about months earlier when Australian-based alumni members of Tītahi ki Tua, asked their NZ-based friends to help them provide the backing vocals for Marlon’s concert at Spark Arena.
They jumped at the chance and must have left an impression on Marlon.
“It’s not often an opportunity like this comes around so I am very grateful we were considered,” Jana says.
“Having an opportunity to work with industry professionals at such a high calibre is inspirational.”
There were no airs or graces in the room though, says Jana, just a down-to-earth Kiwi guy who was charming and charismatic, and made an effort to get to know everyone.
“We were playing a game of chess when we first met Marlon. He came over, studied the board, then knelt and started playing too.”
Not only a great singer then, but a great person and New Zealander too.