Blonde hair and fair skin made it hard for Waiata Anthems singer Nikau Grace to connect with her Māori heritage. Growing up with comments like, “You’re not Māori”, and being told by other school children to take off the taonga (treasure) she wore around her neck, Nikau, 15, started questioning her identity as Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Wha¯nau-a¯ -Apanui and Te Arawa.
“When you’re a young kid, you don’t really think about things like that, but the
