Whirimako Black MNZM (Ngai Tuhoe) is the kind of person who makes you feel like you’ve known each other forever, even though we’re meeting for the first time, and it’s on Zoom.
She sits on the couch in her Ruatoki home, windows and doors open, and we chuckle about the heat, needing glasses to see computer screens, barking dogs, and the importance of choosing to be kind rather than correct.
Now in her early 60s, it has been a busy year for Whirimako. She’s collaborated with Salmonella Dub on several songs as well as the band’s nationwide tour and, in March, she’ll be closing Auckland Arts Festival in true style, performing for one night only in He Kete Waiata, with Allana Goldsmith (Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tai ki Tārere) and Leon Wharekura (Ngaati Mahuta, Ngaati Whaawhaakia, Waikato) with musical director Dixon Nacey (Mangaia, Rarotonga).
Whirimako is renowned for waiata from her iwi, Ngāti Tāhoe. She also has whakapapa to Ngāti Tāwharetoa, Ngāti Ranginui, Te Whakatāhea and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui. She has lent her voice to more than 20 albums, which have
