November 23, 2022
World traveller local hero after return home
Musician turned festival organiser Tama Waipara has taken home a Kiwibank local hero medal for his mahi around Tairawhiti.
As well as directing the Tairāwhiti Arts Festival, Waipara is co-chair of SOUNZ – Centre for New Zealand Music and a member of the governance group for Te Hau ki Tūranga, the meeting house currently held by Te Papa Tongarewa.
He says moving back home to Turanga at the age of 46 was the best decision of his life.
“It was a bit like a rebirth in some ways. It’s just been the most valuable, important and necessary journey just to reconnect with home, that’s been something I was able to do because of home and all the support I had from my whanau to be able to go and do all those things so actually to be back here and have some way of meaningfully contributing back,” he says.
Tama Waipara