Waikato musician nominated for Waiata Māori Music Award

Waikato musician Pianika Duncan has been nominated in the best Māori female solo artist category at the Waiata Māori Music Awards to be held in Hastings in September.

The 25-year-old songwriter based in Hamilton graduated from the School of Media Arts at Wintec last year with a commercial music degree and now finds herself nominated alongside someone she looks up to.

“The main thing I was stoked about was seeing the names of well-known artists like Maisey Rika and being nominated in the same category as her,” Duncan said.

“She’s my idol.”

Rika is a staple of the Waiata Māori Music Awards, an accomplished New Zealand musician known for singing in Te Reo Māori and fusing the language with English in some of her songs.

The nomination made Duncan proud of her Māori roots.

“I just want my people to be proud of who they are, as they make me proud of who I am and inspire me to learn my language more.”

Duncan isn’t fluent in Te Reo Māori, but she intertwined the language with English in her song Bring Mana to Your Name and last year it earned her an E Tū Whānau Song Competition award.

The people’s choice prize was a trip to Peter Jackson’s recording studio in Wellington, where she recorded her song with Maaka ‘Phat’ McGregor who entered it in the Waiata Māori Music Awards.

“It’s my goal to become better known in the music industry, well that’s one goal, and I didn’t expect this to happen so fast,” she said.

After being born in Australia, Duncan and her whānau moved to Ngāruawāhia about a month later and she grew up there until moving to Hamilton after getting married six years ago.

The move was good for Duncan as it was closer to school, but she still visits Ngāruawāhia every day.

“I have a performing arts school in Ngāruawāhia, I teach about 100 kids there, we do singing classes, guitar classes and dance classes,” she said.

“I love being able to pass on my knowledge to the children and they’re talented kids, I just want to see them excel and hopefully I can be an example to them.”

Duncan has two young children and they’re a big inspiration to her.

“When I do write music, I’m often in a room with them and I always look at them and think about what I can say,” she said.

“I have written a song about my love for them, they just make me want to be better and to become something so that they can be proud of me.”

Another inspiration is her mum, Kim Anderson, who would make her sing everywhere from church to country clubs with her grandparents when she was growing up.

“My mum was a big push, she’s the main one, she’s my number one fan, and thinks I can do anything.”

In future Duncan wants to move on to the New Zealand Music Awards and, further on, she dreams big.

“Who wouldn’t want to be like Lorde at the Grammy’s?

“No, my biggest goal is to travel around the world and be able to perform my music for people at my concerts, I just love to sing and perform.

“There’s so much beauty in Māori and I just want to keep writing more music so everyone else can see the beauty in it too.”