Stories and traditions, voices and shared spaces
Ariana Tikao spends a bit of time with Síle Mannion, talking about her musical art, her interest in language and her experience with performance, plus working across languages, the revival of taonga puoro and the inviting nature of collaborations.
Stories and traditions, voices and shared spaces
And here’s a video, created by Ariana – a piece for bass clarinet and taonga pūoro, premiered, with Anna Koch, at the Arts Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2024:
Ariana Tikao | Te Hurika (2024)
Ariana Tikao is a singer, composer, leading player of taonga puoro (Māori instruments) and New Zealand Arts Laureate. She writes waiata exploring themes relating to her Kāi Tahu identity and mana wahine, often drawing upon historical kōrero from her ancestors. Ariana’s music has featured on television, film, theatre, dance and in online videos. Whatever the setting for her music, Ariana always brings artistic integrity, and what one reviewer described as “depth and dignity,” making her a sought-after talent and collaborator in the arts scene in New Zealand today. She is also a published writer and poet.
More can be found on Sounz and at her website, arianatikao.com
Síle Mannion is a proud Irish woman and citizen of Aotearoa New Zealand. Published variously and widely, on this side of the world and the other, she writes and writes, poems and bits and pieces of small fictions, short stories and reviews. She writes in English, her first love, and flirts on occasion with Spanish, particularly in song, but she is faithful unto death to the Irish, as she says: ‘It is a part of me and as necessary as the rain. If English is my tūrangawaewae then Irish is my sheltering Rangi-nui-e-tu-nei.’