Remembering Toni Huata
A tribute to the late great Māori singer, composer and performer Toni Huata.
Selected Works is a weekly (usually) newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell, aka Yours Truly. Most weeks, Selected Works consists of a recap of what I’ve been doing lately and some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken + some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes it takes completely different forms.
Earlier today, news broke about the passing of the late great Māori singer, composer and performer Toni Huata (Ngāti Kahungunu and Rongowhakaata iwi). A tireless advocate for Māori music and te reo Māori, Huata spent the majority of her recording career in the 2000s and 2010s, releasing music in her mother tongue in a variety of styles. She was also the Kaihautū Puoro Māori - director of Māori music at the SOUNZ Centre for NZ Music. RNZ has run a news story about her here. I expect it will be the first of many to follow.
Thirteen years ago, I interviewed Huata on the eve of the release of her fourth studio album, Hopukia. Today, in tribute to her life and times and ongoing influence, I’ve decided to republish that interview through my newsletter. You can read it below.
In the late 2000s, Toni Huata worked on a stage show with the choreographer, dancer and video artist Louise Potiki Bryant (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe and Waitaha). As part of the show, Louise's husband, Paddy Free of Pitch Black, was handling the music. Speaking to me down the phone from her home in Hautere near Wellington, Toni reflects on her feelings while watching Paddy perform. "When he came on, I noticed how intricate but sensitive his music was to that project. It captured an element of spiritualism and ambience and, when needed, those earth rhythms, tribal rhythms and dance rhythms required for the whole project. I was impressed by that, and in the back of my mind, I thought, I'd like to work with Paddy one day."
Over the course of last year and early this year, Toni had the opportunity to do precisely that while creating her fourth studio album, Hopukia, a collection of bilingual dub and electronica songs with production divided between Paddy and another good friend of hers, the well-loved composer Gareth Farr. Released in late July, the record debuted at number seven on the official New Zealand album charts, granting Toni her first-ever chart success. Alongside this, she took the record and its associated live show to the Pacific Festival of the Arts in the Solomon Islands, finding, as she had on past tours of Europe, America, Australia and the UK, a substantial degree of love for her musical vision.
A hairdresser in a former life, Toni has long had a passion for dance music and electronica, stretching back to her younger years. "I love the energy of instrumental beats," she says. "You can dance and zone out, go into your own world and allow the energy to flow around you. Freedom is what we all seek, and that is what that music does, and I love it." With Hopukia, Toni saw these structures and forms as the perfect support for a thematic concept she had developed.
"Hopukia means to grasp or capture," Toni explains. "My family always inspires me, and that word comes from the family proverb "E rere e tu huata hopukia, E ere e te manuka tomokia" That is how we got our surname. So, I wrote three songs with that concept and that idea in mind. One [called ‘Whakaaha’] was about my ancestor Whakaaha, who caught the huata spear in mid-flight [during a battle] and saved his leader Haenga. Through doing that in his short but very brave life, we received our surname Huata." After that, she wrote another song called ‘Hopukia Te Ta’o’ with Gareth Farr, which talks about what hopukia represents for Toni and her whanau. "I look at my family, and a lot of them are go-getter type people," she continues. "They make their dreams a reality, so I wrote the song with that in mind. Even how I relate this to my own family and my own children. It is about fighting for them if you have to. Being brave if you have to speak up, not sitting on the fence, actually choosing and making choices in your life." Rounding the three songs out, she created a piece called ‘Ā Muri Ra’, essentially Toni's wishes of well-being for her descendants, the environment and the future."
Adding in seven other songs of strength, love, unity and growth, between writing sessions with Gareth, studio sessions with Paddy and work with plenty of other session musicians and friends, Toni was able to release a record which, as with her past albums, marks a moment in time for her. "Paddy and Lou[ise] live in Piha, so he just brought his portable studio down to my place in Hautere," she reflects. "It was quite funny because Paddy and Lou live in a lovely lush beach area, and so do we. The environments where the album was mixed, mastered, and created have all the beauty of nature and its elements. Paddy came down for five one-week sessions. It was awesome working with him. He is a very generous person. A very joyful person. I think we had a good synergy. We're actually going to do another single shortly for Māori radio."
Similarly, she speaks fondly of Gareth, someone she has worked with on and off since they worked together on Tanemahuta Gray's musical theatre show Maui: One Man Against the Gods. "Gareth is a true composer of the word," she says. "He composes everything from the vocal score to the music. He knows where my voice shines best in terms of pitch and everything. I think he can just capture the seed of my emotions. We're good friends, Gareth and I, and we make each other laugh. He is a hard-case person to work with. It is always fun working with him, and he works quickly. He is a very talented person, so the relationship will definitely continue."
For Toni, who is older, more experienced, and nowadays a fully fledged parent, the goalposts of success have been shifting since her third album, Whiti (dedicated to her children). Speaking in early October 2012, she defined the endgame as follows. "It is about making your dreams happen in a good way. Make sure the people that you work with are your friends and your family, and at the end of the day, you do it so that you are still respectful of them. You treat other people well, and others will treat you well. It comes with a bit of maturity and experience as well. You might be a solo artist, but you never do something alone. It is a group effort. It is a family effort. It is for everyone involved. For me, it is important to remember that. I always look at the joy of everyone coming together with their talents for a purpose that is bigger than any one individual.”
FIN.