Participants Announced For Reo Māori Songhubs

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
Bic Runga
Diaz Grimm
Kings
Louis Baker
Maisey Rika
Matiu Walters
Reuben Fleetwood
Seth Haapu
Theia
Vayne

Producers | Kaihautū Puoro
Brandon Haru
Rory Noble
Liam Conrad aka Stuss 
Te Whiti Warbrick aka SickDrumz 
Sam Taylor

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.”

You can read more about all the participants and experts HERE.

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.

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