God Defend New Zealand

Lore & Background

The poem was written in the 1870s by Irish-born, Victorian-raised immigrant Thomas Bracken of Dunedin. A competition to compose music for the poem was held in 1876 by The Saturday Advertiser and judged by three prominent Dunedin musicians, with a prize of ten guineas. The winner was the Vandemonian-born (i.e., born in Tasmania) John Joseph Woods of Lawrence, Otago, who composed the melody in a single sitting the evening after finding out about the competition. The song was first performed at the Theatre Royal in Dunedin, on Christmas Day, 1876. A Māori version was produced in 1878 by Thomas Henry Smith of Auckland, a judge in the Native Land Court, on request of Premier George Edward Grey. In 1940 the New Zealand government bought the copyright and made it New Zealand's 'national hymn' in time for that year's centennial celebrations. With the consent of Queen Elizabeth II, the government of Robert Muldoon gazetted the song as the country's second national anthem on 21 November 1977, on equal standing with "God Save the Queen".

In Their Own Story

The stadium lights hum with a low electric tension, casting long shadows across the hallowed green of Eden Park. The crowd has fallen into a rare, reverent silence, thousands of voices holding their breath. On the pitch, twenty-three men stand in a tight line, shoulders touching, eyes fixed forward. There is no chatter, only the sound of breathing and the distant rustle of the wind. Then, it begins. A single voice rises, clear and strong, singing the first verse in Te Reo Maori. The melody swells as others join, a deep, harmonic rumble that seems to vibrate through the soles of their boots and up into the stands. For thirty seconds, there is no rugby, no rivalry, only a shared prayer for the land and its people. As the final note fades into the night air, the silence breaks instantly, replaced by the roar of the Haka beginning to take shape.

Reader's Guide

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage has responsibility for the national anthems. The guidelines in the 1977 Gazette notice advise that the royal anthem would be appropriate at any occasion where the monarch, a member of the royal family or the governor-general is officially present, or when loyalty to the Crown is to be stressed; while "God Defend New Zealand" would be appropriate whenever the national identity of New Zealand is to be stressed, even in association with a toast to the reigning head of state. There are no regulations governing the performance of "God Defend New Zealand", leaving citizens to exercise their best judgment. When it is performed at an event, etiquette is for the audience to stand during the performance.

Did You Know?

• The original 1878 Māori version uses 'whakarangona' (to be heard), the passive form of 'whakarongo' (to hear). An alternate form 'whakarongona' first appeared as an error in 1940.
• The anthem's melody was composed in a single sitting the evening after John Joseph Woods learned of the competition.
• The first public singing of the anthem in both Māori and English is often attributed to singers Vicky Lee and Cyndi Joe at the Kiwis-Britain league test in 1992, though earlier instances exist.
• The original score and lyrics were added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand register in 2013.