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Melbourne-based avant-pop artist Dudley Benson today shares ‘Pūrerehua’, his first new recording since 2018’s Zealandia. A beloved song for generations of New Zealanders, ‘Pūrerehua’ – waiata of the butterfly – was originally written by revered musician and educator Hirini Melbourne (Ngāti Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu). On the song’s 50th anniversary, Benson’s airy and luminous take is delivered as a limited edition 7” vinyl, backed with a remix by Taite Prize-winning artist Princess Chelsea. The package includes cover artwork and sticker sheets by National Contemporary Art Award-winning painter Ayesha Green (Ngāti Kahungunu, Kai Tahu). All proceeds from the sale of Pūrerehua are donated to The Manaaki Collective, a grass-roots organisation who support human rights and Te Tiriti activists.

‘Pūrerehua’ isn’t Benson’s first interpretation of Hirini Melbourne’s work. In 2010 he released the Taite Prize-nominated Forest, an album of covers of Melbourne’s bird waiata. The vocal-only project featured choir, barbershop quartet, beatbox, and a duet with British folk icon Vashti Bunyan. Benson recorded ‘Pūrerehua’ around that time, but chose not to include it on the album. 13 years later, he found the song in his archives, spent the year polishing it, and then approached Aotearoa producers Princess Chelsea, Eyeliner, ALCS and Amamelia to remix.

“The artists who came together to make Pūrerehua recognise the ongoing threat both to te reo, and the rights of the indigenous people of Aotearoa,” says Benson. “Like Hirini, we won’t tolerate this, and believe that making music and artwork can be an act of resistance in itself.”

Ayesha Green’s paintings – included as kiss-cut water-proof laminated sticker sheets within the vinyl package – recruit displaced characters from Disney’s 1989 The Little Mermaid to offer moving words of mourning, and a rousing call to arms.

Hirini Melbourne (1949-2003) was a widely-respected musician and activist who fought for the survival of te reo Māori. His dozens of deceptively-simple folk songs about birds, trees and insects went on to be taught in schools since the 1980s, forging an Aotearoa-specific blend of activism, creativity and love for the natural world. ‘Pūrerehua’ was written for his daughter.

The Pūrerehua 7” vinyl sticker package is released today in a one-off pressing of 150 units. They are sold only at dudleybenson.com. The digital single is now available on all major streaming platforms.

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Photo credit: Frances Carter