A research team from Cardiff University (Prifysgol Caerdydd) is working with Waikato University to examine the similarities between te reo Māori, te ao Māori and Welsh language and culture through the lens of grassroots music.
Dr Ellen Ifan who is based at Cardiff University’s School of Welsh is in Aotearoa with Chroma, a three-piece alt-rock band from Wales that sing in Welsh (Cymraeg) and English.
Ifan says the research is still in the early stages but it seeks to find out what making contemporary music using what are still minority languages means for musicians, and will examine lyrics as cultural texts.
“Music and language have always been intrinsically linked. And when we think of music and popular music, we think of lyrics, we think of the messages that people are trying to get across. So that’s what we’re really interested in as a research team is, you know, the reasons why people are using their own languages, so either Cymraeg or te reo Māori to express themselves through the medium of popular music.”
Patterns emerging
Ifan, whose main research interest is the relationship between literature and other media, believes the genre of music is important in the survival of language.
“I feel like contemporary music is so important that minority languages and languages which are so old are used in a contemporary space. Because it kind of adds into a canon of stuff that’s already out there,” she says.
While the project is still at the gathering stage of research, Ifan says patterns are already emerging between the use of both languages in contemporary music.
“What we’re starting to see is that people really do have some shared experiences around their language use, around attitudes other people have towards their language and their use of language in the popular music space.”
The trip to Aotearoa is a return visit, and another chance to collaborate with Māori punk rock band Half/Time. The three-piece band from Hamilton, which sings in te reo Māori, travelled to Wales earlier this year as part of a strategic partnership between the two universities launched in 2019. The partnership aims to deliver world-class collaborative research and opportunities for researchers, staff and students in both universities.
