ONO
The Māori lyrics written by Te Manahau Scotty Morrison are inspired by traditional karakia (incantations) and pay homage to “people power”, relationships and language. From the Arctic Circle to the highlands of Scotland; from Canada to the misty mountains of Taipei; out of Australia and up to the islands of Hawai‘i, producers Paddy Free and Moana Maniapoto mix sublime vocals with electronica-dub to create a World music album that symbolises hope and unity.
Ngā Kaihautū - Producers
Ngā Kaihautū - Producers
MOANA MANIAPOTO (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa) is an Art Laureate and inductee into the NZ Music Hall of Fame. Her 1993 debut album Tahi (Moana & the Moahunters) was the 2019 Independent Music NZ recipient of the Classic Album Prize. Moana was a Grand Jury Prize winner of the International Songwriting Contest with her spoken word track ‘Moko’. After forming Moana & the Tribe in 2002, the band has played hundreds of international concerts across more than 30 countries. An award winning documentary maker and journalist, she was a co-winner of Te Tohu Kairangi Award at the 2024 Voyager Media Awards for outstanding journalism. Moana hosts her own Current Affairs show Te Ao with Moana (Whakaata Māori). ONO is her 6th studio album.
PROFESSOR TE MANAHAU SCOTTY MORRISON (Te Arawa) is a highly respected contributor to the revitalisation of the Māori Language. A longtime songwriting collaborator, language advisor and performer of Moana’s, he co-wrote the giant haka fusion protest song Te Apo, the Māori Battalion tribute Pae o Riri and Ūpokohue (a place-getter in the International Songwriting Contest). His vocals and his lyrics feature on the album ONO. An actor, newsreader and writer, Scotty is Manukura at Television NZ and an inaugural member of Te Mātāwai, the group charged with the responsibility of revitalising Māori language. He was a finalist at the 2022 Voyager Media Awards and winner of the inaugural Libro.fm Audiobook of the Year Award.
PADDY FREE has fused his love of electronica and traditional Māori music to earn a special place within the NZ music industry. He has produced albums for Ngā Tae, Toni Huata, Salmonella Dub and Moana & the Tribe but is most famous as one half of the pioneering New Zealand electronic duo Pitch Black. An in-demand composer, performer and producer, Paddy writes music for dance, theatre, and art installations as well as soundtracks for films such as ‘Whetu Marama, Bright Star,’ ‘Moana Jackson: Portrait of a Quiet Revolutionary,’ and the theme for Moana's Current Affairs show ‘Te Ao with Moana.’ Alongside Moana, Paddy is one half of the electronic duo TŪ.
GUEST ARTISTS
MARI BOINE (Sámi, Norway)
Sol suggested I head to Womad New Zealand to meet Sámi artist Mari Boine — she of the ethereal voice and compelling songs. I read up about her long fight to raise the visibility of the Indigenous people of Northern Europe — their language and culture — through music. Same, same, I thought. Only with snow and reindeer. Mari and I hit it off immediately. I asked if she could pop over to the tiny village of Inari in Finland. Paddy and I were performing at the Skábmagovat Film Festival, north of the Arctic Circle. She did. Paddy pushed play in a recording studio. I knew it would work. Not just because of Mari’s extraordinary talent. But because Māori and Sámi have such a long and close relationship. Even when it was performed at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo to a live audience of around 170,000, with another 100 million watching on the BBC, this lullaby is incredibly intimate, evoking the icy beauty of Mari’s homeland.
INKA MBING (Atayal, Taiwan)
Years ago, while touring Taiwan, our band saw photographs of kuia wearing tā moko. Same, same, but also quite different. A friend Masao Aki suggested his cousin Inka Mbing might be “the one”. She had fought to revive the reo of her Atayal people, one of 16 Indigenous nations officially recognised by Taiwan. Mates Tobie and Sean drove Paddy and me into the mountains. I told Inka that my dad was strapped for speaking Māori at school, and that others had their mouths washed out with soap. Inka said her people were colonised by both the Japanese and Chinese, that the first song she learned was Japanese, and that she was beaten for speaking Atayal at school. We both got teary. Inka told Paddy to push play. He did. "Tōku Reo,” celebrates language. It makes me think of a lithe warrior woman in the misty mountain tops beyond Taipei, whose eyes melted beside mine.
JANI LAUZON (Métis, Canada)
I met themultiple award-winning artist Jani Lauzon years ago in Toronto after seeking out a guest vocalist to join our band onstage for the Harbourfront Festival. We couldn’t believe her vocals. Such range and power. Canada was always on my radar. I had toured there with my band, screened my documentaries at film festivals, and spoken at conferences. So, I tracked Jani down. A Métis multidisciplinary artist from East Kootenay, Jani sent her vocal files to Paddy, and then was filmed for our video (by her daughter, on her phone) on the deserted streets of Toronto during their Covid lockdown.“Tū” is a celebration of tohi. It’s a traditional ritual to instil insight and wisdom, courage and fortitude in the newborn. When my daughter was a baby, our whānau stood in Lake Taupō with our kaumātua Te Kanawa Pitiroi performing the tohi. To me, Jani’s intense vocals reflect the power and urgency of tohi, where our ancestral past infuses the future.
MEGAN HENDERSON (Scotland)
The Gaelic language of Scotland is courtesy of Megan Henderson, lead singer and violinist for the award-winning Scottish band Breabach. Megan and I first met when 21 artists from Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Scotland hunkered down at the Muriwai Surf Club to write and perform songs. I was worried. The bagpipes were the loudest instruments we’d ever come across. We also knew very little about Scotland. But copious amounts of beer, kai and kōrero bridged the gap. A shared experience of colonisation nudged things along too. Suddenly the bagpipes and haka merged as symbols of absolute defiance. We played at Womad New Zealand, the Sydney Opera House and HebCelt on the Isle of Lewis. “Maiea” is a karakia to soothe the troubled mind. Scotty whispers the beautiful kupu, as Megan’s bell-like voice is like a beautiful chime, heralding peace.
SHELLIE MORRIS (Yanyuwa, Australia)
I’d met Shellie Morris before Boomerang. Rhoda Roberts, head of Indigenous Programmes at the Sydney Opera House, talked my sister Trina and me into collaborating with four Indigenous Canadian and Australian wāhine. During her career, Shellie has captured around 17 endangered languages through song. That kind of thing is not for the faint-hearted, especially when the aunties are on duty, monitoring every syllable. Scarier than Scotty, I’m picking. Shellie recorded her vocals in Melbourne, then whizzed the stems across the Pacific Ocean and through the sky to Paddy. Fitting really. The lyrics of “Huakirangi,” performed in both te reo and Gadigal, explore the relationship between night and day, sun and moon.
KAUMAKAIWA KANAKA'OLE (Hawai'i)
I was keen to find a Hawaiian vocalist for our final song but struggled. I mentioned it to reo advocate Hemi Kelly in 2023. He recommended Kaumakaiwa. Sol tracked her down. I flew to O‘ahu. Kaumakaiwa told me that we’d met 20 years ago amid the dusty, majestic ruins of Greece. My group represented Aotearoa in the Cultural Olympiad that led up to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Our cohort included Indigenous Australian, Lakota Sioux and native Hawaiians. Kaumakaiwa was a teenager then, the star of the Hawaiian group. Just a boy. “Ātahu” is a mixture of spoken word, whispers, haunting refrains and ‘oli chants. The theme of the waiata is magic. Kaumakaiwa weaves a spell in and around the seductive groove created by Paddy Free. Now a charismatic young wahine, Kaumakaiwa has come full circle.
