February 28th, 2008 is a day many of us will remember as a day of disbelief and shock.
A text message sent from over the Tasman is received in Brisbane and a phone call is
made back directly to make sure the text is true.
A few more phone calls are made to make it absolutely positive...it's true.
Missy Teka has passed away after a fatal car accident in Mangatawhiti, not too far
south of Auckland. The text messaging to spread the word here in Brisbane is quite
speedy considering not much whanau knew back on the home land.
Scouting about on the internet came up with no word at all; making our
afternoon a kind of freaky haze as the unbelieving mind takes it's time for
the news to register. How on earth can you be talking with her one minute
and the next minute she's gone?
Phone calls start to pour in, right into the night. Is it true...
what happened...
what can we do...
sorry to hear...
can we have poroporoaki here for the people in Brisbane?
Friday morning dawns and phone calls start again.
Poroporoaki is to be held at Te Whenua in Carbrook that evening.
And what a beautiful service it was, considering the amount of notice
people had been given. Koha was given, aroha and awhi was given to
take back to Missy's whanau on behalf of the many Maori people of Brisbane.
To the people here, we remembered a night almost a year ago, when Missy
graced us with her presence. The Tribute Night held for the late Prince Tui Teka
was a wonderful night when memories of his concerts, pub gigs and TV programs
came to the fore.
It was a night when the atmosphere hung heavily with anticipation and people
cried unashamed, a night when we moved back through the years and found
we all have this beautiful music and common love for a great New Zealand
entertainer. Missy Teka’s presence was something that just topped it all.
Her first impression when asked to come for this Tribute Night was one of doubt;
maybe it was just a backyard party. Her doubts strengthened when there was
no Haka performed on her arrival, just a nephew hurrying her out to the car.
Over the years Missy had been invited on various occasions to return to Australia,
Brisbane, Perth and Sydney.
Why she accepted this one was a mystery, but she wasn't complaining. After the
people in Brisbane turned up the notch for Missy by welcoming her with so much
excitement and aroha she felt truly honoured.
As the night unfolded, we were all moved to tears with the
unbelievable crowd and fantastic entertainment.
What
is not commonly known however, is the affect that this Tribute night had on
Missy.
Not many would probably care what she had done for the past twenty
three years, let alone the last year, but of late she hadn't been doing
anything huge in the way of concerts and music. Not to say that Missy
Teka didn't have her important roles back home now and then, on TV or big
national functions of importance, she did.
“Missy
was honoured just last year as a Maori Music Icon at the Waiata Maori
Awards”.
She
was also on the board of Creative NZ.
For the pleasure that Tui and Missy have given so many people for so many years, it is
a crying shame to see news articles with wrong information in there.
For a friend of such station, Peta Sharples... how can you publicly get her hometown wrong?
And yet another news write-up incorrectly stating her death on the wrong day!!
Did she really mean so little to us that we just scribble it up so blatantly?
How many of us still play Tui and Missy and croon along trying to sound like them at parties
we have? Play their CDs whenever we feel like singing along...
because we all know the words!
It wasn’t public knowledge that Missy was even coming to our
fundraiser, everyone was coming to celebrate a Tribute to a well loved
& highly respected Legend – Prince Tui Teka.
We presold 500 tickets for the Tui Teka Tribute night. One of our security guys stopped clicking
the counter just short of 800 people. Some came from Sydney and as far away as Melbourne
- confirmation that as the years roll on, love for Tui and Missy is forever.
Early On
It was
PACKED!!
To see that they hadn't been forgotten was something that deeply stirred Missy.
After the Tribute night and throughout 2007, she rang back to Brisbane often.
She had ideas on taking the Tribute night on tour in Brisbane and Sydney, maybe even
further, and having her own family band come over to entertain us with their awesome
music. Even the kids of Tokomaru Bay were in the plans to come and perform kapahaka.
The biggest challenge was raising enough putea to cater for such a huge idea.
Excited brainstorming because of a Tribute Night held in Brisbane 23 years
after the passing of Prince
Tui Teka.
She even had a DVD and CD made up that went out on sale around Christmas 2007.
The DVD entitled 'E Ipo The Tui Teka Story' shows approximately 44 minutes of old footage on
Tui's life,
and the CD includes some less recorded songs like, Moe Mai E Hine,
Danny Boy (On the saxophone),
and Po Ata Rau as well as some of the better known ones.
My husband and I attended Poroporoaki here in Carbrook before flying out on Saturday to
Auckland and then by car to Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast of New Zealand, Missy's hometown.
Our plane landed early evening and as we slowly made our way southeast we stopped to eat
and get gas and learned of the long procession that had preceded us earlier that morning.
Missy had travelled from Auckland through to Tokomaru Bay at 2am that morning.
We carried with us the aroha from the people here in Brisbane, a precious cargo that we felt
privileged to have bestowed upon us. Sunday, around mid morning we were called onto the
marae with Apirana Mahuika, the Chairman O Te Runanga O Ngati Porou
and a roopu from Te
Wananga o Aotearoa.
During the whaikorero you could feel that aroha flow out ever so gently to
envelope the whanau and later that night, at Poroporoaki my husband made a speech that
acknowledged our people here in Brisbane, our whanau, and our Roopu, Te Tirohanga-a-iwi.
Such a tremendous honour to have Missy come for our fundraising efforts to build a wharenui
in Brisbane and even more of an honour to have her stay with us over the weekend and let
her hair down over a carton of VB. You couldn't get any more 'East Coasty' than what she
was, a genuine Wahine O Ngati Porou.
The beauty of Tokomaru Bay is simply overwhelming, the peaceful atmosphere,
the magnificent vista, the tight community feeling amongst whanau. The place rings of
serenity on first glance when early morning sees the locals walking and raising their
hands in greeting when cars go by.
Small groups of children playing, some swooping down the tarmac on their skateboards,
others running after them crying for a turn and a dog or two in tow. Horse’s casually
walking down the road and grazing around the homes of Waima - as if they own
the place when they aren't being ridden.
A lazy settlement where the only superette opens at around 9am and closes at 4pm!
And another little shop where you can fill up your car and buy a magazine, or post a letter
and buy a chocolate bar... and not to forget the local
pub ! !
What a place to unwind, sitting on the balcony and taking in that view.
Living in Auckland with her tane of 20 odd years, Henry Peke, Missy
spent a lot of time travelling back and forth to Toko'.
As promised when Tui died, she never did remarry, but she did find a companion to love.
Our hearts are with you Uncle Henry, Davinia, Missy Jnr and all the whanau.
May time soften the heartbreak of loss, and memories never fade.
GOD BLESS
