Ariana Tikao Photo: UGP / Jessie-Lee Robertson
Te Ahi Kaa features the award winning series He Kakano Ahau. In Season 2 – Wawatatia with presenter and producer Kahu Kutia.
Kahu Kutia joins Khali-Meari Materoa, Ruby Solly and Ariana Tikao of the tāonga pūoro collective Maianginui.
The revitalisation of tāonga pūoro came about in the early 1980’s lead by Te Haumanu, a small but passionate trio Richard Nunns (1945-2021), Hirini Melbourne (1949 – 2003) and Brian Flintoff who travelled the country talking to various people about the various stories and whakapapa connected to tāonga pūoro an art form eroded by colonisation.
Their efforts paid off and today the art form is more visible with more practitioners and makers of tāonga pūoro. The wind instruments are mostly made of bone, stone or wood.
Ariana Tikao with Kahu Kutia Photo: Jessie-Lee Robertson
In 2020 composer and musician Ariana Tikao was an arts laureate awarded with the Jillian Friedlander Te Moana nui a Kiwa award by the Arts Foundation, she has released three albums and mentored by the late Richard Nunns.
Kahu is in Wellington where each of the women share the importance of bringing to light the narratives of atua wahine connected to music and Māori instruments, and how they each engage with tāonga pūoro in all places and spaces.
He Kakano Ahau – Wawatatia. Watch and listen to the full episode Pūoro In The City, you find the full episode here.
