In the early 1950s Prince Tui Teka joined the circus, which took him to Australia. He started out cleaning up after the animals but soon moved on to performing. Teka left the circus to join a Māori showband which toured throughout Australia. In 1966 he joined the Māori Volcanics and travelled around the world with the group. After the Māori Volcanics broke up, Teka worked in the club scene of Australia and south-east Asia, before returning to New Zealand for good in 1981. His song 'E ipo' (1982) was the first Māori-language song to reach number one in the New Zealand music charts, where it spent two weeks in 1982. Here, Teka is shown performing with the Māori Volcanics in Sydney in the 1970s.