Award-winning Māori singer-songwriter Stan Walker is calling on kura across Aotearoa to celebrate whakapapa, identity and whānau through his new waiata Family Tree — with students being offered the opportunity to perform alongside him during his upcoming symphonic shows.
The kaupapa takes one of the most powerful themes running through Walker’s music — knowing where you come from and recognising the people who shaped you — and puts it into the hands of tamariki and rangatahi.
Kura are being invited to embrace Family Tree through their own performances, using the waiata as an opportunity to explore the connections between generations and celebrate the whānau, whakapapa and communities that give young people their sense of belonging.
For participating students, there is also a major prize at stake: the chance to take that celebration from the classroom to the concert stage and perform live with one of Aotearoa’s most successful Māori artists.
More than a waiata
For Walker, Family Tree is grounded in something much bigger than another music release.
It speaks to whakapapa.
The people who came before us, the whānau surrounding us today and the generations still to come are all part of the story carried through a family tree.
That makes the waiata particularly powerful for kura.
Music can provide tamariki and rangatahi with a way to explore identity that feels different from an ordinary classroom lesson. Through singing and performance, whakapapa becomes something that can be heard, felt and shared.
For Māori students, that connection can extend into pepeha, tūrangawaewae, iwi, hapū, marae and the intergenerational stories carried within whānau.
For students from every culture, the underlying question remains equally relevant — who are the people and places that helped make you who you are?
Kura invited to make it their own
Rather than young people simply listening to Walker’s latest work, the kaupapa encourages schools to participate.
That provides an opportunity for choirs, kapa haka groups, music classes and wider school communities to bring their own interpretation and identity to Family Tree.
It also puts creativity back into the hands of rangatahi.
The strongest performances are not necessarily about perfectly reproducing the original recording. The opportunity is in allowing young people to connect the waiata with their own whānau and tell something of themselves through music.
In an increasingly digital world where young people are constantly exposed to global culture, there is significance in an artist of Walker’s profile turning the focus back towards family, identity and belonging.
Chance to perform alongside Stan Walker
For some participating kura, the kaupapa could lead to an unforgettable experience.
Students have the chance to be selected to perform live alongside Walker at his upcoming symphonic concerts, taking their voices from the kura environment onto a major professional stage.
For aspiring Māori singers and musicians, standing beside an artist who has built a career across Aotearoa and Australia could be transformative.
It allows rangatahi to see that careers in music and the creative industries are not distant possibilities belonging to somebody else.
Māori artists can headline major stages.
Māori stories can sit at the centre of contemporary music.
And whakapapa can be something celebrated publicly rather than left outside the performance space.
Walker continues to put identity at centre stage
Walker has consistently incorporated Māori identity, whānau and personal experience into his career.
That visibility matters.
A generation of tamariki Māori has grown up seeing te reo Māori, tikanga and Māori identity increasingly present across mainstream music, television, sport and popular culture.
Initiatives connecting established performers directly with kura can strengthen that momentum.
They also create opportunities for students who might never otherwise imagine themselves performing before a major audience.
One young person taking part because their teacher encouraged them could discover a love of waiata.
Another could find confidence in performing.
Someone else may start asking their kaumātua about their whakapapa.
The impact does not necessarily finish when the music stops.
Whakapapa as something living
At the heart of Family Tree is a kaupapa Māori understanding that whakapapa is not simply a historical record.
It is living.
It connects people backwards to their tūpuna, sideways to their whānau and forward to generations yet to arrive.
That is why bringing the waiata into kura has the potential to become much more than a competition or promotional campaign.
It creates a conversation.
Who are our people?
Where do we come from?
What did our tūpuna carry so that we could stand here today?
And what will we leave for our mokopuna?
Those are enormous questions, but sometimes a waiata provides one of the simplest ways to begin answering them.
From the classroom to the symphony stage
For the kura ultimately selected to join Walker, the reward will be spectacular — young voices performing alongside a leading Māori artist in a symphonic setting.
But the wider value may be found across every kura that participates.
It is tamariki singing together.
Rangatahi celebrating who they are.
Teachers opening conversations about identity.
Whānau hearing their children celebrate the generations that came before them.
And Māori whakapapa being placed proudly at the centre of contemporary Aotearoa music.
Stan Walker’s Family Tree may be the waiata that starts the kaupapa — but across the country’s kura, thousands of young people have their own family trees and their own stories waiting to be sung.
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