Poi E

Pātea Māori Club , Music Video – 1984

from the album Poi E (1984)

This uplifting promotional clip is as famous as the chartbusting song. Accompanied by Jo, the breakdancing guide, for a tour of Pātea and surrounds, the Pātea Māori Club are captured "bopping and twirling like piwakawaka": at the local marae, in Wellington's Manners Mall, and on Pātea’s main street, where milk tankers and sheep trucks pass by the Aotea canoe remembrance arch. So does the impresario himself: Dalvanius does a pūkana out a car window. In 2010 'Poi E' re-entered the charts thanks to Taika Waititi hit Boy. A documentary on the song was released in 2016.

I probably heard about it long before I heard it. But when I did I was hooked. Seeing Māori on TV was pretty rare so it wasn't until I saw the music video that I realised how huge and amazing it was. It's the quintessential New Zealand song ...
– Boy director Taika Waititi on seeing Poi E while growing up