July 12, 2019
Kingi discovers politics on third album
Troy Kingi brings his 10-piece band the Upperclass to Auckland tonight when he headlines Te Korakora on Federal, the closing event of the city's Matariki festival.
He's performing his new album Holy Colony Burning Acres, the third instalment of his 10|10|10 Series of ten albums in ten genres in ten years.
This one is reggae, and he's gone for a political theme, picking up various indigenous causes.
That fits well with the venue, where earlier today there were protests outside Sky City against the Indonesian Pacific Exposition, which the protesters said was an attempt to legitimise Indonesia's occupation of West Papua – which is the theme of Kingi's song Bird of Paradise.
"That kind of came about when I was talking to some of my like-minded Māori friends and then I was added to all these Facebook pages about freeing West Papua and then starting to look at the conflict that has been there for over 50 years and then startd to get korero from people from West Papua so that is how that kind of grew," Kingi says.
Te Korakora on Federal kicks off at 5pm and also features performances from Moana and the Tribe, reo Māori trio Te Kākāno and kapa haka from Te Wharekura o Hoani Waititi.
Copyright © 2019, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com