Maori love song in the news

After New Zealand/Aotearoa lawmakers pass a law legalizing gay marriage, the galleries and then the floor burst into song. It's "Pokerakere Ana," a traditional Maori song.

Here's video at YouTube.

And here's the Wikipedia article on the song. The extent of its influence is quite impressive.

No less remarkably, everyone in the NZ House of Representatives seemed to know the words. And even the legislators who did not applaud the outcome of the vote stood up to join in singing the song.

In the United States I can’t think of a single widely known cultural bequest of any kind that is in an indigenous language. Any indigenous language.

For a gay New Zealander it was quite moving. An "only in New Zealand" moment. It was surprising as people didn't have to join in but they did, even across parties, and no other legislation has passed with a song, or a Maori song (waiata). At my workplace we begin large meetings with a waiata. I really noticed the lack of biculturalism at a library conference I went to in Melbourne, Australia last year. All other conferences I've been to in New Zealand have had a strong Maori element, and include other cultures too, but in Australia there was no acknowledgement of any other cultures.

Thanks, wifi, I had missed the speaker's reference to a "waiata" at the beginning of the clip, and anyway I did not know the meaning of the word.

Just fixed the malformed link to the video in the OP. For those who haven’t seen it, please take five minutes and watch. Very moving. Here's the link again.