About Moana

Her band Moana & the Tribe and duo TŪ have taken their haka-funk-dub-fusion and politically charged music to the Herodus Atticus (Athens), Sydney Opera House (Australia), Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Sziget (Budapest), Le Club (Moscow), Venice Biennale (Italy),

Jarasum (Korea), Club Babylon Istanbul (Turkey) , Rainforest Festival (Borneo), Shanghai World Expo & more...

Moana cites meeting and performing for Nelson Mandela as a highlight.

She was inspired by her father's passion for music and her own years honing vocal harmonies at St Joseph's Māori Girls College. A law graduate, Moana also credits a host of activists and allies who shaped her commitment to social justice and artivism.

She was the first non-American to win the Grand Jury Prize of the International Songwriting Contest for her spoken word song ‘Moko.’ An Art Laureate and inductee into the NZ Music Hall of Fame, her first album Tahi was made the Independent Music NZ 2019 Taite Music Classic Album. That same year, Moana was made a Distinguished Alumni of Auckland University.

In 2022, Moana launched a remake of AEIOU (TikiDub) on the steps of the NZ parliament to mark the 1972 Māori Language petition to the Government. Her single Aio Ana was performed at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo to a live audience of 200,000 and broadcast to 100 million.

Moana has picked up multiple awards as both a documentary maker and journalist.

Since 2019, she has hosted the show TE AO WITH MOANA (Whakaata Māori) produced by her son Kimiora Hikurangi Jackson. The show won Voyager Media Awards Best Current Affairs in 2021 & 2022. Moana was the co-winner of the 2024 Voyager Best Māori Affairs Reporter.

In 2024, she and her longtime collaborators and co-writers Paddy Free and Te Manahau Scotty Morrison released her sixth studio album ONO. Entirely in te reo Māori and inspired by traditional incantations, each song features a guest vocalist singing in their native language.