Dr McLean is acknowledged world wide as an authority on the music of Oceania, particularly traditional Maori music. A graduate of the University of Otago, Dr McLean was the founding Head of the Archive of Maori and Pacific Music at the University of Auckland from 1970 until his retirement in 1992. The collection that has been donated to the Hocken is Dr McLean’s personal collection of the original tapes, notes, transcriptions and translations of the waiata, cds and mint copies of his books. The material relates mainly to NZ Maori with recordings dating back to 1958, but also includes 30 hours of material recorded in Aitutaki and Mangaia in 1967. Although it duplicates what is already available through the Auckland archive, this generous donation will allow more researchers to access the material here at the in Dunedin. The collection will be useful to iwi, musicians, historians, anthropologists, ethnomusicologists and other researchers who will be able to listen to the recordings through the digital copies, and read the notations and transcripts.
Superb news – a most generous gesture. Appropriate too, that this collection includes Dr McLean’s fieldwork recordings made during his Otago PhD research: seminal work in the discipline of ethnomusicology. Dr McLean was equally generous in enabling my own access to certain of his recordings of Te Atiawa traditional waiata and poi chant. These I transcribed and analysed under the title ‘An initial enquiry into waiata/poi relationships in traditional Maori chant’ as part of the course work requirements for the degree of M Mus in Ethnomusicology, University of London. I remain especially grateful to Dr McLean for his support of my endeavours.
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