East Coast’s HAAMI and Whāngārā Mai Tawhiti to release ‘Wai Ka Tuku, Wai Ka Hono’, the waiata Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po saw performed at Te Matatini and her first Koroneihana
A waiata honouring the late Kīngi Tuheitia and his daughter, Te Arikinui Kuini Nga wai hono i te po, will be released on Friday 13 November, the day before Te Arikinui comes to Te Poho o Rāwiri Marae for the first Poukai held in Tairāwhiti on Saturday 14 November.
Whāngārā Mai Tawhiti first performed the waiata at Te Matatini 2025, the world’s largest celebration of traditional Māori performing arts, where it won the choral category. The two-time national champions later performed it for Te Arikinui at her first Koroneihana, alongside her old school, Te Wharekura o Rakaumanga. Now award-winning artist HAAMI (Hamiora Tuari) has reimagined it as a contemporary track, with the kapa featuring on the new recording.
The words, by Tā Derek Lardelli and Te Rauhuia Ngata, mourn Kīngi Tuheitia, who died in August 2024, and honour his daughter as she took up his mantle. Tā Derek is also a signatory to the kawenata that endorsed Te Arikinui’s accession. The tune and vocal arrangements, by Hamiora Tuari and Ani Piki Tuari, comes from a child’s grief for a father.
“I still feel the ache of losing my own father, but that loss has made me stronger. Watching Te Arikinui stand up so soon after losing her dad, I saw my own grief in her. This waiata is our way of telling her she doesn’t carry it alone,” says HAAMI.
The music video, filmed at Uawa and Whāngārā, pairs HAAMI with his five-year-old daughter, Te Reia, alongside Whāngārā Mai Tawhiti. Both places are tied to Tairāwhiti ariki Te Kani a Takirau, who lived at Uawa and died at Whāngārā. East Coast tradition holds that he was one of the ariki offered the kingship before the first Māori King was raised in 1858. He declined, but supported the movement.
The track is produced by Matt Sadgrove of Sons of Zion, the writer and producer behind the platinum-selling hit “Drift Away”. Funded by Te Māngai Pāho, the release takes kapa haka into a new space as a collaboration between HAAMI and Whāngārā Mai Tawhiti with promotional support from Te Matatini and Haka Life.
Wai Ka Tuku, Wai Ka Hono will be available on major music platforms and social platforms from Friday 13 November 2026.