Ra Keelen: “I’ve been stereotyped so many times it’s not funny”

Ra Keelen is a Māori musician from Kirikiriroa Hamilton. Wintec | Te Pūkenga journalism student Sarah Morcom spoke to him about his experiences with music, culture, and stereotypes. 

Kirikiriroa Hamilton musician Ra Keelen wants people to understand that his Māori identity does not mean he’s a stereotype. 

Keelen, who is now 53, has been playing guitar and making music since he was 19 years old. He’s now looking forward to releasing an EP. 

“There’ll be four songs. One of them will be reggae, one will be a hip hop/R&B kinda vibe, and then I’m still working on the other two” he said.

Keelen performs regularly on weekends. He will often play at the Cook Street Social from 7pm to 10pm on a Friday night. Keelen said the atmosphere is always different depending on the venue.

“I can play at three venues with different vibes, different things happening, and I can play the exact same songs but I’ll play them in different ways,” Keelen said. He will often adapt his songs on the spot to suit the crowd he is playing for.

One of the ways that Keelen spontaneously adapts his music while performing is to switch between te reo Māori and English while he sings.

“I’ll sing a chorus in Māori and then change back to English, or if there’s a song I’ve written in Māori I might sing it in English, or sometimes I’ll sing a popular song in Māori

“I don’t plan it; if it happens it happens”.

Unfortunately these techniques are not always appreciated by audiences. Keelen also expressed frustration towards the way he and his music have been stereotyped in the past. He recounted one particular situation that happened with a woman at a gig in an Auckland bar.

“I had the bar manager come up to me and say ‘hey, do you know anything other than reggae?’”. 

Keelen explained how the bar’s management had never heard him play, but assumed he only played reggae music, simply based on his appearance. 

“So I started to play. And I didn’t play any reggae. And that kind of shut her up”, he said.

The woman who made the comments later apologised to Keelen at another gig, but it’s comments like these that make it difficult for Keelen to express himself through his music.

“I’ve been stereotyped so many times it’s not funny. It just gets a bit annoying”.

Despite the challenges, Keelen continues to throw himself into his music, and feels that he’s still learning. He’s taking a few writing classes to improve his lyrical skills, as part of his Graduate Diploma In Communication at Wintec | Te Pūkenga.

“There’ve been moments where I wanted to give it up, but it didn’t want to give me up”, Keelen said.

“Music is my life”