Māori music leader and composer Toni Huata dies

Huata grew up with her grandparents in a Māori-speaking household. Her whānau was well-known for their contributions to Māori music and performing arts.

Her uncle, Canon Wi Te Tau Huata, wrote one of Aotearoa’s most famous anthems among both Māori and Pākehā – the waiata Tutira Mai Nga Iwi.

Another whānau member, Tama Huata, was a leader in Māori performing arts. He founded the Kahurangi Māori Dance Theatre, which he set up in Hastings in 1983.

She told RNZ’s Three to Seven in 2023 that Māori music will certainly grow and will be more deeply appreciated in the future.

“I know that just from my earlier travels overseas anyone who comes from Aotearoa, irrespective of the culture, when they want to call themselves a New Zealander or someone from this country, they will always perform a waiata reo Māori.”

Huata said that was a way that anyone could connect and feel proud of who they were and where they were brought up.

“Yes, you can be proud to be from Aotearoa … but always the challenge is to learn more about it … engage with the history more, engage with the knowledge, the philosophies more and that will only be a richer experience, and save you from being told off.”

In a post on Facebook, her whānau said a service would be held at Pipitea Marae in Wellington on Tuesday morning. Then she will be taken to Hastings to the marae at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ngāti Kahungunu.