Upcoming live appearances
Kauranga Oro/ Taonga Puoro Sound Bath
Sound Bath / Kauranga Oro with Ariana Tikao - Sunday 3rd August, 3pm - 5pm. Tickets via this page: https://www.vfdalston.com/our-events
Taonga Puoro (Singing Treasures) are Traditional Māori Instruments deeply connected to spirituality and storytelling within Māori Culture. They often mimic the sounds of the natural world such as the wind and the sea.
Join taonga puoro practitioner Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu) for a transformative experience that merges the ancient restorative power of taonga puoro with the resonance of karakia and waiata (sung incantation).
In this special event, environmental voices, elemental gods (atua) and ancestors come alive through the sacred sounds of taonga puoro, guided by the gentle yet powerful energy of Ariana’s practice of Hine Wai Ora. This feminine energy of the atua wahine (Māori Goddesses) symbolises connection and release, and will create a profound sense of relaxation.
As the soothing tones wash over you, you’ll enter a state of deep calm, allowing tension to dissolve and mental clarity to emerge. The therapeutic sounds foster a powerful healing space where wai (water), waiata and karakia (sung incantation) coalesce, offering not only an immediate sense of peace but also lasting benefits such as improved sleep, reduced anxiety, and wellbeing.
There will be cups of tea and food afterwards for grounding.
This event will take place downstairs at the Outsiders Gallery - a cool, calming and tranquil space to keep you sheltered from the heat.
Singing Treasures, Ariana Tikao at Pitt Rivers Museum
Experience Ariana Tikao's return to the Pitt Rivers Museum with her inaugural performance of the poem ‘Kōauau 1933.5.6’ – a brand new spoken word piece written about one of the 'taonga puoro' (singing treasures) in the museum collection. The spoken word piece will be performed alongside a ceremonial performance of Māori music on the Clore Balcony, continuing Ariana’s dialogue with the 'taonga puoro' and other ancestral artefacts on display.
Ariana is a writer, singer, composer and leading player of 'taonga puoro' (Māori instruments) and was honoured as New Zealand Arts Laureate in 2020. Her creative work explores themes relating to her Kāi Tahu tribal identity and mana wahine, the power of women.
Tuesday 29 July, 1-2pm. Free lunchtime performance. No booking required.
Ariana Tikao at Cafe OTO, London
Ariana with pūtātara for Good Company Arts PEPE and Pōtaka Nautilus in Ōtepōti.
Ariana Tikao is a renowned practitioner and composer of taonga puoro, Māori traditional instruments. She is a New Zealand Arts Laureate who has gained recognition as a soloist with Aotearoa's principal orchestras and chamber groups such as Stroma and the New Zealand String Quartet. Her arts practice is rooted in her South Island Māori identity, with a palpable connection to place, and ancestral narratives. Ariana’s live performances move between realms, beyond time, and enable audiences to feel like they are being “bundled up in a big feather cloak and transported to another world”.
Ariana will perform a programme of vocal and taonga puoro music, both solo, and accompanied by members of the London-based Rothko Collective, including creative director and violist Dominic Stokes. They will perform some new works composed by Karl Sölve Steven (NZ/Sweden), as well as music by Luka Venter, Muriwai (Ariana Tikao and Bob Bickerton), multi-media works by Good Company Arts, and some improvisations.
https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/ariana-tikao/
Mate Ururoa with Wellington Opera
World Premiere
'Kaua e mate wheke, mate ururoa’ | ‘Don’t die like an octopus, die like a hammerhead shark’
Gallipoli, 1915. A captain in the Native Contingent disobeys his commander’s orders to save the lives of his men.
A true story of the heroism and humiliation of Captain Roger Dansey, a Māori soldier on the frontline of a European war, Mate Ururoa is an urgent new chamber opera from legendary New Zealand composer Dame Gillian Whitehead (Ngai Te Rangi, Tuhoe).
With the originally planned 2021 premiere at New York’s Carnegie Hall cancelled due to the pandemic, Wellington Opera is proud to present the world premiere of this important new work by one of Aotearoa’s greatest living artists here in Pōneke.
Performed in English and te reo Māori by Māori-American baritone David Tahere alongside acclaimed taonga pūoro practitioner and mezzo Ariana Tikao, with director Sara Brodie and Aotearoa's leading new music ensemble, Stroma, conducted by Hamish McKeich.
11 July 7.30pm
12 July 7.30pm
13 July 2.30pm
Captain Roger Dansey – David Tahere
Taonga pūoro and voice - Ariana Tikao
Stroma
Conductor - Hamish McKeich
Director - Sara Brodie
Sung in te reo Māori and English, with surtitles
- - - -
Together with another World War I story:
Notes from the Front
by Ross Harris
Richard Greager - Tenor
Performance duration is approximately 55 minutes
Tito Ohia! Improv!
Kāi Tahu taonga pūoro artists Ariana Tikao and Ruby Solly played together with percussionist Ensai August a few years ago, in Wellington-based taonga pūoro orchestra 'Te Āteanui'. Ruby and Ariana have played together for many years in art music quartet Tararua (with Al Fraser and Phil Boniface), and more recently in Good Company Arts' hybrid digital/live Pepe & Pōtaka Nautilus performance in Dunedin's Glenroy Auditorium to rave reviews. Seth Boy is a double bassist and composer who's led numerous jazz and improvising music groups in Pōneke, and Ensai is a member of some of Wellington's most dynamic acts including Mā and the Fly Hunnies. This is the first time they have all come together as a collective to improvise, and sonically explore, called tito ōhia in te reo Māori.
The Great Hall, Poetry with Puoro
Get cosy by the fire and listen to some star-filled poetry by Ōtautahi-based creatives, their words woven with the mesmerising sounds of taonga puoro. Featuring Isla Huia (Te Āti Haunui a-Pāpārangi, Uenuku), Josiah Morgan (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Maniapoto), Danielle O’Halloran (Samoan, Pākehā), and Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu). Part of the Christchurch Arts Centre’s Matariki Festival. Great Hall | From $15+BF. Booking recommended.
Taonga puoro and poetry at Te Ara Ātea Library, Rolleston
Join Kāi Tahu musician and Arts Laureate Ariana Tikao for a special night of Taonga Puoro. Ariana will start the evening with an introduction to these unique ancestral instruments of Aotearoa, demonstrating their sounds. Then she will invite people to relax and be immersed in the mesmerising voices of her taonga, while she sings waiata and recites her moving poetry based on the stories of local pūrākau and places. A night not to be missed!
Ariana Tikao is a musician, composer and writer whose work explores her Kāi Tahu identity, mana wahine, and ancestral kōrero. She was awarded as a 2020 Arts Laureate by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.
All ages welcome.
Bookings required. https://tockify.com/selwynlibraries/detail/3210/1749796200000
Te Ara Ātea, 56 Tennyson Street, Rolleston.
$10 per person for Selwyn Libraries members, $20 non-members.
Payment can be made or charged to your library card on the day of the event.
If no spaces are available, please call (03) 318 7780 to be added to our waitlist.
Ariana Tikao playing pūkāea with sunset at Birdlings Flat, Kaitōrete.
Christchurch Arts Centre, Ariana Tikao with Jon Hooker
Jon Hooker and Ariana Tikao
Immerse yourself in the soul-warming waiata of Arts Laureate Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu), with the sparkling fingerstyle guitar of Jon Hooker. This is a rare opportunity to hear Ariana and Jon as a duo in a small, intimate venue. Cloisters Studio | From $20+BF*. Bookings recommended.
As part of Te Matatiki Toi Ora, The Christchurch Arts Centre’s Matariki Festival.
Auckland Writers Festival
Let The Dead Speak: Kia Kōrero Te Hunga Mate. Writing about ancestors or other figures from our pasts necessitates a collision between history and imagination. How much dramatic license can the creator have – be they novelist, historian, poet, musician or filmmaker – in depicting events they weren’t present at, in imagining conversations they never heard, in evoking the thoughts and emotions of those they never met?Esteemed historian Hirini Kaa (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata) meets a dynamic range of creatives to discuss how they’ve navigated these very questions in their work: Whiti Hereaka (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa), winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction for Kurangaituku; Tim Worrall (Ngāi Tūhoe), filmmaker and author of 2024’s Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle Without End, set during the New Zealand Wars; and singer, poet, musician and author Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu). Book here.