APRA Maioha Award

I whakawhiwhia tuatahitia te Tohu Maioha a APRA i te tau 2003, ā, he mea hanga hei whakanui i te kairangi o ngā titonga waiata Māori ka ngākau nuitia e te marea, hei whakaawe i ngā kaitito Māori ki te tūhura, ki te whakapuaki hoki i tō rātou ahurea, ki te whakapiki hoki i te rongonui o ngā waiata reo Māori puta noa i Aotearoa.

Mai i tērā wā, kua tau a Te Ngore - te pakoko o te tohu Maioha i whakairotia ai e Brian Flintoff - ki roto ki ngā ringa o ētahi o ngā kaitito waiata tino kauanuanu o Aotearoa; pērā i a Ngahiwi Apanui - te tangata i whakawhiwhia tuatahitia ai ki te tohu - tae atu ki a Whirimako Black, ki a Ruia Aperahama, ki a Te Awanui Reeder, ki a Maisey Rika, ki a Rob Ruha, ki ngā tāngata i whakawhiwhia ki te tohu i nā tata nei anō hoki, ki a Vince Harder rātou ko Troy Kingi, ko Stan Walker.

I te tukuhanga o Te Ngore i tētahi kaitito ki tētahi, ka mahara tātou he mana tō te puoro hei whakakotahi, hei taunaki, hei whakaako, hei whakakori, hei whakaahuru, hei whakamārama, hei whakaawe anō hoki i a tātou.

Ka riro i te toa o te Tohu Maioha a APRA te $3,000, ā, ko ia hei kaitiaki mō Te Ngore, mō te tau kotahi.

First awarded in 2003, the APRA Maioha award was created to celebrate excellence in popular Māori composition, to inspire Māori composers to explore and express their culture and to increase awareness of waiata in te reo Māori throughout Aotearoa.

Since then, Te Ngore - the Maioha award sculpture carved by Brian Flintoff - has passed through the hands of some of Aotearoa’s most respected songwriters; from Ngahiwi Apanui - the inaugural recipient of the award - to Whirimako Black, Ruia Aperahama, Te Awanui Reeder, Maisey Rika, Rob Ruha, and to the most recent winners, Vince Harder, Troy Kingi and Stan Walker.

As Te Ngore passes from one composer to the next, it reminds us that music has the power to unite, bear witness, educate, agitate, comfort, illuminate and inspire us.

The winner of the APRA Maioha Award receives a $3,000 cash prize and is the guardian of Te Ngore for one year.