New Waiata Celebrates Indigenous Solidarity for Matariki

Wellington-based musician and writer Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu) is releasing her waiata Kōtuku and music video for Matariki. The song was playing on the radio in a dream that the arts laureate Tikao had during the first lockdown in 2020. When Tikao awoke, she remembered the first few lines and jotted them down. It was produced by her friends Brooke Singer and Ben Lemi of French For Rabbits who also perform on the track.

Kōtuku is fully in te reo Māori, and the previously released bilingual version Fly You Home is a mix of English and te reo. The recordings and music videos were funded by the Waiata Takitahi initiative jointly funded by NZ on Air and Te Māngai Pāhō. Tikao sees the waiata as a musical bridge to connect to her friend, the internationally renowned Lakota/Kiowa Apache storyteller Dovie Thomason.

“I started writing it during our first lockdown, and felt we were in a relatively privileged position here in Aotearoa. Dovie said in a comment on social media that she was ‘lying prone’ with a back problem at the time, and this ended up being a metaphor in the waiata to do with the vulnerability of indigenous peoples worldwide” said Tikao.

The video director and animator, Jacob Perkins was living in Melbourne at the time the song was written but has recently returned to Wellington. He teamed up with local artist Emma Kitson (Kāi Tahu) who created the visual landscapes and artworks. The video features migrating birds, and landscapes of Aotearoa as well as Thomason’s high desert homelands in the Southwest of the States. The kōtuku, or white heron is a bird that features in Māori traditions as being very prized, and often an important manuhiri is spoken of as a “kōtuku rereka tahi” a bird of a single flight, as they are not often seen. This whakataukī and imagery is prominent in the video.

The waiata is being released by Oro Records, Tikao’s label that she started last year with fellow musicians Alistair Fraser and Ruby Solly. They started up the record company to support the release of their band Tararua’s album Bird Like Men, and have since released several other albums and videos.

“The waiata was written as a koha to Dovie, but I’m excited to be able to share it now with te ao whānui,” said Tikao.

Listen to Kōtuku Here

Photo Credit: Ebony Lamb