What is the unique traditional Maori musical instrument known as a 'bullroarer', swung on a cord to produce a whirring spirit voice?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. The purerehua, a flat wooden or bone blade swung in circles to create vibrating atmospheric hums
- Step 1: The purerehua is swung rapidly overhead on a braided flax cord, creating deep buzzing tones. Step 2. Its vibrations were used in weather rituals to summon rain or wind and to communicate with ancestral wairua. Answer: The purerehua, a flat wooden or bone blade swung in circles to create vibrating atmospheric hums. Why not the others: It is one of the most evocative instruments of taonga puoro.
Practise more Tikanga Maori, Te Reo, Arts and Cultural Traditions.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed General Knowledge (New Zealand) mock tests.
More Tikanga Maori, Te Reo, Arts and Cultural Traditions questions
- What is the traditional Maori war dance, now performed before rugby matches, called?
- Which haka, said to have been composed by the chief Te Rauparaha in the early 1820s, is the best known?
- What is the traditional Maori greeting in which two people press their noses and foreheads together?
- What is the name of the sacred Maori meeting ground, with a carved meeting house at its head?
- Which Maori New Year festival is linked to the rising of the Pleiades star cluster in midwinter?
- Which traditional Maori method cooks food in a pit with hot stones covered with earth?