20/09/2011
Iconic Maori Composer Kingi Ihaka
The late Rev’d Sir Kingi Ihaka was acknowledged and awarded the Iconic Maori Composer for 2011, at the Maori Music Awards earlier on this year. In 1964, Kingi Ihaka was president of the Wellington Anglican Maori Club from 1964 and probably became most well known for his compositions and direction of Maori cultural groups at competitions. Although his groups were famous and often won prestigious awards, he disliked the competitiveness associated with Polynesian festivals.
He composed waiata for the church and for competitions and many of his waiata like Nau mai, Piki mai and Ehara taku toa is still sung today around Aotearoa and the world.
At the library in the archives we have a collection of notebooks filled with known and unknown waiata from Kingi Ihaka. (KIN157/1/12)
