By Stephen Adams

Dalvanius Prime (Tainui, Ngapuhi, Ngati Ruanui, Tuwharetoa, Nga Rauru, Pakakohi, Ngai Tahu), performer, record producer and cultural icon, died on October 3 2002 aged 54.
By Stephen Adams

Dalvanius Prime (Tainui, Ngapuhi, Ngati Ruanui, Tuwharetoa, Nga Rauru, Pakakohi, Ngai Tahu), performer, record producer and cultural icon, died on October 3 2002 aged 54.
He had been suffering from cancer for over twelve months, and his passing at Hawera Hospital came after a three-day bedside vigil by his family, including adopted daughter Alishba.

Dalvanius' musical career began in 1969 when he won first prize in a talent quest on Wellington's radio 2ZB. From there, he became the musical director and pianist for Porirua trio the Shevelles. A year later he formed The Fascinations, a group he toured with throughout Australasia, peaking with performances at the Sydney Opera House in support of Petula Clark and Diahann Carrol. In 1983 he released singles Love Train and Respect Yourself via Reprise Records, and in 1983 he set up Maui records, recording Tama Renata and Moana Maniopoto Jackson among others.

But Dalvanius is best known for Poi E, the 1984 smash hit he wrote with the late Ngoi Pewhairangi for the Patea Maori Club. Poi E was New Zealand's number one-selling single for four consecutive weeks, and went on to spend 22 weeks in the charts, becoming the year's biggest selling song. Poi E was a visionary concept: take a group of young people from Patea, a town that had just been hit by the closure of its freezing works, and give them a chance to make a single, using Maori lyrics set to a tight, funky rhythm (the video featured twirling pois as well as breakdancing).

The result was the creation of an instant classic, a Maori song that crossed over to take the country, then the world, by storm. The kids from Patea went on to perform at the London palladium, the Edinburgh Festival and The Royal Command Performance. The group also played in New York, Washington DC, the Te Maori exhibition in St. Louis and a series of concerts in Los Angeles including Disneyland. ("The highlight of our tour" Dalvanius told Billboard magazine, "has been the concert supporting The Violent Femmes at Irving Plaza, New York")

In 1994 Dalvanius had completed Poi E-The Musical, a stage show inspired by the single. The musical had its world premiere in Patea, with Television One's Heartland filming an hour-long documentary about its evolution. After a six-week sell-out New Zealand tour, Dalvanius took the show on tour to Hawaii.

More recently, Dalvanius has become known for his campaign to have Mokomokai (the ancient preserved heads of Maori chiefs) returned to Aotearoa from museums around the world. In 1997 he set up the Mokomokai Education Trust and travelled to museums in the US and Europe, giving lectures on the history and importance of Mokomokai to Maori and to negotiate the return of remains held in their collections.

Dalvanius is to lie at the Pariroa Pa in Patea, and will be buried in the Tutahi Marae Cemetery just north of Waitotara on Monday October 7.

"The whole Poi-E concept was born in 1982 after linguist Ngoi Pewhairangi asked me how she would teach the younger generation to be proud of being Maori and Kiwi. I told her by giving them their language and culture through the medium they were comfortable with...

Poi-E's strength was its rural roots, the promotion of Te Reo Maori, the Maori language and Kiwi culture. I then stated, long after her and I have left our earthly bodies, the language - via our anthem - will live on from generation to generation". Maui Dalvanius Prime