In April 1956, the magazine Te Ao Hou,offered an article to its readership about Tuini Ngāwai, the Māori musician, teacher, shearer and cultural ambassador.
Tuini Moetū Haangū Ngāwai was born in 1910 and survived her twin, Te Huinga, to become one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most well-known and respected songwriters. She was also an accomplished teacher, specialising in Māori culture and working with all schools that taught Māori children from Te Karaka in Poverty Bay to Cape Runaway. After being approached to lead a shearing gang, Tuini learned how to shear so as to lead by example, and continued to write songs, about shearing in particular.
Not content with that, she started a band of six instruments – the ATU Orchestra – and went on to work with performance groups, entering them into competitions to represent the area in which she lived and worked. An activist, she was involved with the Kotahitanga movement to empower through cultural revival.
If any readers have recordings or music from Tuini Ngāwai’s prolific output, please get in touch.
Read more:
https://natlib.govt.nz/collections/a-z/te-ao-hou
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Music_Hall_of_Fame
Watch and hear more:
https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/44811/tuini-ngawai
Learn more:
https://e-tangata.co.nz/korero/ngahuia-te-awekotuku-never-give-up-girl
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