Why are these old waiata compelling?

Including the ones that aren't standards? I'd say it's like a missing link between modern kapa haka and Māori pop music vs. all the pre-contact or 19th century traditionals. People hear a few chords, and it suddenly makes total sense. That's cultural memory. - On a deeper level, I think that Mari Hamunata's songs in particular seem to be a refutation of the narrative that Māori art and expression was culturally erased. All those composers were just like me and my peers of all backgrounds: they were making decisions about all the music that was available to them, and finding their distinctive voice from a melange of influences. - What's interesting is that my Pākehā friends that live overseas have that sentimental attachment to the songs that they were largely intended to have by the cynical music publishers of the early 1900's. Sent them to Lauren and Barbara. Puhihuia is something else, though. That's a special song, even without considering the Ngāti Hikairo context as the origin for the myth that the preface has introduced. I'd love to hear the BBC recording.