Ka tangi te tītī, ka tangi te kākā

Ka tangi hoki ahau

Ka tangi te tītī, ka tangi te kākā

Ka tangi hoki ahau

I never forgot it embedded and threaded

From the bottom of the roots to the tip of my family tree

Stepping to heaven like tukutuku panels

Which my tipuna have taken all in stride

Before they left this earth now the resting in peace

Lesson learned I keep it in my brain tightly woven like whariki

Knowers as a tamariki wish I listened to wisdom

Instead of being a know it all

Now I'm struggling to understand thе basic whaikorero

Can't blame it on getting my еars screwed too much

Watch listen and learn boy coz one day will be your turn boy

Never really grasped what they were saying

Until the inevitable happened

Whanau reunion we praying paying our respect

Our tipuna we'll never forget

To believe that you're gone something I'll never accept

I'll keep on piecing my own til I breathe my last breathe

The legacy you left I'm grateful and forever in debt

Ka tangi te tītī, ka tangi te kākā

Ka tangi hoki ahau

Ka tangi te tītī, ka tangi te kākā

Ka tangi hoki ahau

Im deep in wananga in our wharenui back home

Looking at your pictures in the wall kowhaiwhai on the backbone

That poutokomanawa stand tall right up to the tekoteko

Learning te reo māori now is my passion and my wero

I gotta make the connection now before it becomes to late

To suffer the loss of our land and our language will be too great

Apirana Ngata's crusade to learn a new way

Still keep our culture close

Still te reo is what we struggle with the most even though

I've been brought up round the marae

Watching our koro speak on the paepae

Can't help but feel that mamae

Coz wonder what gonna happen when koro's gone

Who's gone hold the mauri of his tokotoko on

And wear that moko strong all the songs

Of our ancestors lessons left for our people

They could foresee the evil what colonisation could lead to

It's not our fault but it's our responsibility

The opportunity to rewrite history

And it starts with

Ka tangi te tītī, ka tangi te kākā

Ka tangi hoki ahau Tihei mauri ora!

Ka tangi te tītī, ka tangi te kākā

Ka tangi hoki ahau Tihei mauri ora!

Ka tangi te tītī, ka tangi te kākā

Ka tangi hoki ahau Tihei mauri ora!

Ka tangi te tītī, ka tangi te kākā

Ka tangi hoki ahau Tihei mauri ora!