My new single 🐛 Pūrerehua🐛 is out today on streaming platforms, and as a limited edition 7” vinyl package, with remix by Princess Chelsea and sticker sheets by Ayesha Green. Buy yours now! All proceeds from Pūrerehua are given to The Manaaki Collective, who advocate for Treaty justice and human rights in Aotearoa.

The waiata of the life-cycle butterfly, Pūrerehua was originally written by educator and activist Hirini Melbourne in 1975. To me, its the perfect pop song. Since the 1980s, it’s been sung by generations of Aotearoa school children as part of Hirini’s mission to prevent the suppression and loss of the Māori language. Pūrerehua blends activism with a sense of wonder for our natural world, and on its 50^th birthday, I’m sharing my new version.

Te reo Māori is under threat in Aotearoa, yet again. The artists who have joined me in this project have come together in the spirit of Hirini’s activism to say that we see this, and like so many others, we respond. 

In a one-off edition of 150, Pūrerehua is pressed on resistance yellow and includes two sheets of kiss-cut waterproof laminated stickers for putting up wherever you like! Three random 7”s have been signed by me, Princess Chelsea and Ayesha. Five orders will include a bonus signed test pressing. We’re selling them only at dudleybenson.com, so buy your 7” package now before they’re all gone. For every 30 7” packages sold, we’ll release a new remix of Pūrerehua. As well as Princess Chelsea’s, Amamelia, ALCS & Eyeliner have also contributed remixes that take the song to other very special and far-off places again.

So much love has been put into this project by the artists. My big hearty thanks to them for their work, to Tom Healy for mastering, and to the whānau of Hirini Melbourne (1949-2003) who have been generous and trusting in allowing me to continue to work with Hirini’s waiata. 

Buy a copy of the vinyl, give one as a gift, sing along to Pūrerehua and its remixes, put up the stickers, and resist in whatever way you can.

Buy the 7" · Spotify · Bandcamp

Tihei mauri ora!

Dudley

Image by Frances Carter