We're delighted to announce the producers and songwriters who will be taking part in our new Reo Māori SongHubs 2020
program:
Songwriters | Kaitito Puoro
Producers | Kaihautū Puoro
Reo Māori Songhubs 2020 will take place at Waimārama Marae in Hawkes Bay from Monday 16 November to Friday 20 November.
Reo Māori SongHubs is a collaborative songwriting wānanga, bringing together experts in music creation and waiata reo
Māori to further the development of a bi-lingual music industry.
This is an incredible group of talented music creators who are all at different stages of their development with writing
waiata in te reo Māori, but they share a passion for learning more, and collaborating in this mahi. We look forward to
hearing the waiata they will create together.
The curator of the program is superstar/producer/collaborator Joel Little, while pre-eminent mātanga reo/language specialist and songwriter Sir Tīmoti Kāretu is the reo curator. Five other mātanga reo/songwriters Jeremy Tātere MacLeod, Leon Te Heketū Blake, Pētera Hakiwai, Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes, and Ruth Smith will guide and assist with the sessions.
"This is an exciting opportunity to support these collaborations for writing new waiata reo Māori, particularly with the
guidance of Joel Little and Sir Tīmoti Kāretu", says Hinewehi Mohi, APRA AMCOS NZ's Pītau Whakarewa. "Ka tau kē!"
“SongHubs has always been about collaboration and this kaupapa gives us the opportunity to not only create music
together, but to build Aotearoatanga" adds Victoria Kelly, Director of Member Services. "It’s such an honour to bring
this extraordinary group of people together in such a beautiful place, knowing that - in two weeks’ time - there will be
new waiata Māori in the world, new creative connections made, and incredible knowledge and wairua shared.”
Each day the songwriters and producers will be assigned a different group to write a song with. This group will consist
of a producer/engineer, a Māori language consultant/mātanga reo, a ‘lead’ songwriter (for whom they are writing a song),
and one other songwriter. These groups will each inhabit a separate space for the day, and across the week everyone will
have the opportunity to work with different groups.