Taisha announced 2010 ambassador for music awards

Press Release, August 13, 2010.

Waiata Maori Awards – Taisha announced 2010 ambassador

Well-known singer, song-writer and performer Taisha Tari has been named the inaugural 2010 Waiata Maori Awards ambassador.

The ambassador’s role will be to promote the National Maori Awards in New Zealand and internationally.

Waiata Maori Awards executive director Tama Huata says the ambassador will work as a champion for Maori music and Maori artists, as a role model and guide for those aspiring to achieve industry.

Mr Huata says after considering the range of Maori artists working in the industry at the moment, he and his team decided to select Taisha, who was a winner at the inaugural Waiata Maori Awards in 2008.

“Taisha is a fantastic performer, singer and songwriter and she fits the bill in terms of what we want to achieve here at the awards.

“She is a very good speaker, she represents the whole kaupapa of the awards. The ambassador is the one who advocates for the Maori Music Awards, the media person who is out there talking about the awards on radio, television or in the newspapers.

“Establishing the ambassador is something we seriously needed to introduce this year,” he said.

Taisha grew up in Napier but is now based in Auckland, where she has lived for the past 20 years, and is now working on a new album.

In 2008 she won two categories at the Waiata Maori Awards, the Best Maori Female Solo Artist (album Aonua) and Best Maori Song (Karanga).

“Firstly it’s not a job but it is an honour and I was very humbled to be asked to be the first ambassador. When Tama selected me, I just about fell over. With so many other deserving artists to choose, he asked me, wow!

“I’m taking this role seriously. My role as ambassador will be to create and awareness of how important and unique it is to have beautiful waitata, dance, fashion within us as Maori, and the importance of sharing that not just within our own culture and each other but the rest of the world!”

Taisha says still remembers the moment when she won the two awards in 2008 and is keen to help other Maori artists achieve in music.

“Not just the up-and-coming artists but also the children, that’s where it all started for me. At primary school I knew what I wanted to do and I never waived,” she says.

Friends and colleagues in the music industry have supported her new appointment to the Waiata Maori Awards.

“They just said that’s awesome because they know I am so proud about that part of my music,” Taisha says.

‘It’s also a sign of where my path is heading; I am writing a lot of songs in te reo, and it is a beautiful language to sing. It can be so poetic when it is translated into English the meaning is simply beautiful.

“I’m working in the studio at the moment and some of my work is completely in Maori because what I want to say and how I want to say it, it needs to be said in Maori.”

Taisha is also working on a project, a show she hopes to take to the US, which involved Maori language and culture.

“I’ve put together a concept for a tour overseas, a cultural show to the US, because I want to take our culture to show the rest of the world. They are so interested in where we come from and our stories, our dance and our spirituality which connects us together,” she says.

She’s also “still singing up a storm” with Lady Killers (Jackie Clarke, Tina Cross and Suzanne Lynch) and is working on a separated project with Tina Cross.

“I’ve teamed up with Tina … and we are called, Wicked Wahine. We want to take a show through rural areas and perform for children to inspire, empower and to give them some tools to help them achieve their own dreams.

“I believe that’s where it starts. If we can just plant enough seeds in our children I’m hoping some of them will grow,” Taisha says.

Waiata Maori Awards 2010:

• The awards will include the Maori Music Expo, September 9 and 10, where modern and traditional musicians and composers will offer their advice and experience in a series of workshops and forums.

• A fashion show will be held on the evening of September 9, mixing live music with work from prominent Hawke’s Bay designers.

• The awards ceremony will be held on the evening of September 10, broadcast by Radio Kahungunu through the iwi station network and by Maori Television.

• A hip-hop dance competition will be held on September 12, starting at 4pm. Judges will include Justin Haiu and Billie Paea. The dance competition awards will be held at the conclusion of the event.
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