March 25, 2024
Songwriters aim for Welsh waiata
Māori and Welsh musicians are collaborating this week in a project to revitalise their heritage languages through collaborative songwriting.
Greg Haver, a Welshman who’s co-chair of the Aotearoa Music Producers Guild, says three Welsh songwriters will collaborate with six six Māori songwriters and three producers for the Māori / Cymraeg Song Hubs at Big Fan Studios in Tāmaki Makaurau.
He says music is an important part of indigenous identity.
“A lot of young Welsh artists, a lot of young Welsh bands are all singing in Welsh because it’s part of their identity as a Welsh persn and it’s very prevalent here as well, te reo Māori is such a beautiful landugagge and it’s such an important part of the culture here to embrace it in song,” Haver says.
He says when when reggae bands in Aoteaoa like Herbs were embracing te reo Māori in the 1980s, punk bands in Wales were doing the same thing with their language.