January 24, 2019
Long journey to Jellicoe Park
Riqi Harawira has a message for anyone who feels trapped in addiction or depression.
The veteran musician and Waatea recording artist is headlining a special Music in Parks concert at Onehunga’s Jellicoe Park on Monday celebrating the International Year of Indigenous Languages.
He says embracing Māoritanga has turned out to be the niche he has been looking for throughout his career, and it has also helped him deal with a decade-long addiction to methamphetamine.
"Because mauri is a metaphor for a journey of deliverance from addiction into sobriety for me, because mauri is that special power that is born in the cosmos by Io Matua and it's a thing that combines our hinengaro with our tinana and our wairua so the journey for me has been one of abandoning my wairua and abondoning my senses, thrusting myself into addiction as a way of escaping my problems," he says.
Riqi Harawira will play a solo set at the Jellicoe Park concert, which also features Wellington collective Groove Roots.
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