The New Zealand National Anthem

By Deane Barker

New Zealand has two anthems, it turns out. They are equally official, and used for different reasons:

  • “God Defend New Zealand” is most commonly known, and is used to generally promote New Zealand sovereignty and national identity. There are five verses, though usually only the first verse is sung, in both Maori, then English.

  • “God Save the King/Queen” is used whenever a British royal representative is present. This is quite common for countries that have history as a British colony or commonwealth.

Both anthems technically equal status. However, “God Defend New Zealand” is typically sung before sporting events and most New Zealanders would probably identify this as the anthem.

Here are the lyrics:

God of Nations at Thy feet,
In the bonds of love we meet,
Hear our voices, we entreat,
God defend our free land.
Guard Pacific’s triple star
From the shafts of strife and war,
Make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand.

The reference to “Pacific’s Triple Star” is disputed. The writer didn’t specify, but popular belief is that this refers to the North, South, and Stewart islands of New Zealand. (Stewart Island is a relatively small island off the southern tip of the South Island.)

Since the Maori translation is sung first, this means that “God Defend New Zealand” is the final lyric, which is normally accompanied by cheers – much like “…the home of the brave” in the American national anthem.

The Maori translation ends every verse with “Aotearoa” which is the Maori name for New Zealand, translated literally as “land of the long, white cloud.”

The song was written in the 1870s, but wasn’t confirmed as the national anthem until 1977.

Why I Looked It Up

I attended an exhibition rugby game in San Diego, and “God Defend New Zealand” was performed, both in Maori and English. It occurred to me that I should know the national anthem of my birth country.

I talked to my Dad the next day, who I attended the game with (and who was born in New Zealand and lived there until he was 35). He was unaware of there being two national anthems. He was also unaware of there being more than one verse.

He did recognize the duality of languages sung, and he could quote quite a bit of the lyrics.

We were listening to some YouTube renditions, and my Dad noted two things:

I asked two other Kiwi friends if they knew the national anthem. One knew it was “God Defend New Zealand,” but did not know of the other one. The other friend was quite embarrassed that he didn’t know either. When prompted with a hint, he said he thought it was “God of Nations,” which is the first lyric.

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