Byllie-jean Wins A Taite Music Award: 'This Is An Incredible One For Me As A Māori Woman And A Kuia'

Sunday, 20 April 2025, 3:35 pm
Article: RNZ

RNZ Online

"An exercise in bravery" is how musician and grandmother-of-three Byllie-jean describes releasing her award-winning debut EP Filter.

After years of hustling to raise her family, making music no longer feels like a luxury to her, though - it's now a necessity.

"I feel like the creative thing has been a struggle and a wrestle, and it's been hard-won. I guess I have enough years under my belt now."

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Although she began writing songs at 10, Byllie (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Ngāti Pahauwera) says it took a long time to gain confidence in her Billie Holiday/ Erykah Badu-inspired singing style.

As a younger woman, before spending time with wahine Māori who believed in themselves and in her, she also struggled with a general sense of whakamā [shame] about herself.

To help desensitise herself to the anxiety of releasing music, Byllie plans to keep releasing EPs rather than albums.

“Every time I release a single, I have pre-release and post-release anxiety from the vulnerability.”

For her, winning a Taite prize for Filter, which features poet Isla Huia and musician/actor Marlon Williams, is "an incredible tohu [signal] particularly at this time in the political environment".

"With those awards come resources and opportunities, and that's what artists need to keep going."

Byllie Jean on the cover of her debut solo EP Filter, which won the 'Auckland Live Best Independent Debut Award' at the 2025 Taite Music Awards.

Although she's not yet able to write songs in te reo Māori with "poetic license", Byllie is proud of the new single 'Hinekoukou'.

It's an ode to mātanga reo (language expert) Te Haumihiata Mason who she worked with at the Reo Māori SongHubs programme.

"That was some mana, man, being next to her. That was mana wahine, all right. I enjoyed it so much.. It felt right together."

For Māori women making music, the time has come, Byllie says.

"To me, [waiata] is the best type of storytelling in the world.

"That's the voice of the wahine being reinstated to where it was, the voice of the earth."

For Byllie and her family, it was often difficult to find a patch of earth to call their own, and during her adult life, the musician has been destabilised by having to move at least every couple of years.

"Constantly moving is just massive on the nervous system for a start, and also expensive, just difficult ... I always used to have that anxiety that I would get the call that you've got to move out."

To quell her housing anxiety, a few years ago, Byllie saved for and bought a house truck she named 'Homie'.

"Now it doesn't matter who kicks me out or which landlord does what they want to do, I still have Homie to go to."

To bring to public attention how hard it is for a single-income family to find secure housing, Byllie recently spoke about her family spending six months in Homie.

"We have enough physical houses here for everybody that lives in this country, yet we still have homelessness.

"As Māori, we were refugees, and now we are still finding it difficult to connect with the whenua, let alone find a home. We have to do better."

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