Heart & soul

Seth Haapu explores his Tahitian origins, and Magic Factory takes a rock'n'roll ride.

- 

WHAI ORA, by Seth Haapu

When Aaradhna - the self-described "Indian and Samoan New Zealander" - released her 2016 Brown Girl album, on the title track she sang, "I'm more than the colour of my skin... I'm more than urban, R&B", a barbed comment about those who consign Māori and Pacific artists to convenient and often-marginalising categories.

When she won best urban/ hip-hop album at that year's music awards - as well as best female solo artist - it showed someone hadn't been listening. She refused the award and passed it to Onehunga's hip-hop group SWIDT.

"I'm a singer. I'm not a rapper, I'm not a hip-hop artist," she said. "It feels like I've been placed in a category for brown people." The multicultural group Nesian Mystik, Theia, Tommy Nee- of Niuean heritage, like Tigi Ness, Che Fu and the Fuemana families - Teeks, Seth Haapu and many others also stand apart from that category.