Moana Maniapoto
Documentary maker, journalist and award-winning artist
Moana Maniapoto (Te Arawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) is a singer, songwriter, documentary maker, journalist and leader of the New Zealand band Moana & the Tribe.
An Art Laureate, Moana was inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame (APRA-Amcos) in 2016. In 2019, her debut album Tahi (1993) was honoured with the Taite Music Prize-Classic AlbumAward (Independent Recorded Music NZ).
Moana & the Tribe have played countless international stages across 30 countries over the last 20 years, taking their haka-funk-dub-fusion and politically charged music to the festivals like Sziget (Budapest), Sunsplash (Vienna), Roots Festival (Amsterdam), Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland) as well as clubs like Atomic (Berlin), Le Club (Moscow) and theatres like Herodus Atticus (Athens), Sydney Opera House, then the Venice Bienale (Italy) and Shanghai World Expo (China) to name a few.
Currently producing her 6th studio album Ono with Paddy Free and Scotty Morrison, the fifth single Maiea was released this year. Another single Aio Ana will be performed at theRoyal Edinburgh Military Tattoo during Aug 5-27to a live audience of 170,000 and to a broadcast audience of 100 million on the BBC this Aug 29. Moana and Paddy have taken their electronica dub duo TŪ to Taiwan and Finland, while the band played My Name is Moana at the 2021 Auckland Arts Festival.
Offstage, Moana directed a documentary series on treaty settlements called TheNegotiators, and with her film-making partner Toby Mills–released their feature documentary Moana Jackson: Portrait of a Quiet Revolutionary in May.
She is the associate producer, host and journalist for the award-winning current affairs show TeAo with Moana on Māori Television.