Ria Hall "Rules of Engagement" 2017

Born and raised in Maungatapu, Tauranga, bilingual singer Ria Hall used her hometown’s history as inspiration for her powerful debut album, Rules of Engagement. The title came from a letter that Henare Taratoa (Ngāi Te Rangi) sent in 1864 to the first Governor of New Zealand, Sir George Grey, outlining a code of conduct for The Battle of Gate Pā (Pukehinahina) – a key battle of the New Zealand Wars. Both political and personal, the 2017 album established Hall as one of the most thoughtful voices in New Zealand music...
...Five years in the making, Rules of Engagement was released in 2017 to high praise and Hall went onto win the APRA Maioha Award the following year with Tiki Taane (Ngāti Maniapoto) and Te Ori Paki (Tuwharetoa, Tūhoe, Tainui) for the single ‘Te Ahi Kai Pō’. Hall had moved back to Tauranga to finish the record. “I left Wellington and life changed,” she says. “I had to get myself into a good space before I could finish everything off. And money, there’s always that as well.”
More than 150 years on, the Rules of Engagement letter written by Henare Taratoa proved to be just the inspiration Hall needed to write the record. The letter stated that captured soldiers at The Battle of Gate Pā would not be killed and unarmed Pākehā, women and children would be spared. “There was so much compassion and a sense of maintaining one’s mana and integrity in a predicament that asks you to murder and to pillage and to plunder,” says Hall.
Interspersed throughout Rules of Engagement is a series of archival recordings she found of her grandfather’s older brother, Turirangi Te Kani, speaking about the battles of Pukehinahina and Te Ranga. “He helped weave everything together,” Hall says. “So when I found him, I found the real purpose of the record.” - Hussein Moses and AudioCulture

trax:
01 In These Trenches (feat. Te Kahupakea Rolleston) 02 Te Kawa O Te Riri 03 Black Light 04 Sing Dance Dream 05 50,000 Acres 06 Forever (feat. Laughton Kora) 07 Tell Me 08 The Battle 09 They Come Marching 10 Prisoner 11 Barely Know 12 Te Ranga 13 Te Ahi Kai Pō 14 Love Will Lead Us Home 15 Kōrero with Tiki 16 Hawaiki
…served by Gaius…