Six Months in a Leaky Boat/Ono Marama Takerehāia

Tim Finn , Music Video – 2022

from the album Waiata Anthems (2022)

'Six Months in a Leaky Boat' remains one of the most beloved Split Enz songs. The 1982 track evokes both arduous sea journeys bringing European settlers to Aotearoa, and a tough period in composer Tim Finn's personal life. In this video from Waiata Anthems, Finn and four wāhine Māori vocalists reimagine the song in te reo Māori. The tempo is slowed, and new lyrics and female voices create a new wairua (spirit). Finn collaborated with mātanga reo (language expert) Hana Mereraiha to reinvent his tale of tough passages. Joining him at the mic are Mereaiha, Bella Kalolo, Tuakoi Ohia and Kiratahanga Hona.

I don't think I've ever written a song quite like it, where it sort of cut through different time periods of my life. So I was able to talk about myself as a very young boy, vowing with my best friend Chris Ryder, almost a blood oath really that we would sail around the world together. Didn't happen, but we meant it at the time. And so that became a place of imagination for me, more than a real place...
– Tim Finn on the origins of 'Six Months in a Leaky Boat', in series two, episode five of Waiata Anthems