Moana & the Tribe are back: Band announces new album Ono

Paddy Free, Moana Maniapoto and Scotty Morrison (L-R) have collaborated on a new album. Photo / Stephen Tilley

Moana & the Tribe are releasing a new album.

The genre-bending band, headed by award-winning singer-songwriter and TV presenter Moana Maniapoto, will release Ono on Friday, November 1.

The project is an international affair, with each of the six songs (ono means six in te reo Māori) showcasing the voice, language and culture of six indigenous women/wāhine from countries where Moana & the Tribe has performed; Norway, Australia, Taiwan, Canada, Scotland, and Hawaii.

The te reo lyrics were written by broadcaster and Māori language academic Te Manahau Scotty Morrison, who was inspired by traditional karakia, the band said on Thursday.

The record, produced by Paddy Free and Maniapoto, is described as electronica-dub world music.

“I’ve always been into fusing haka with hip-hop, mōteatea with soul, taonga pūoro with western instruments, Māori with English, classical with contemporary, passion with politics. I love that it’s normal now. It wasn’t always,” Maniapoto said.

“My friend and manager Sol de Sully has taken me and my band around the world to strange lands, where we saw ourselves in the people we met.

“Ono builds on those connections. It celebrates solidarity, shared colonial experience, and the rich diversity of indigenous cultures.”

Self-described as “dub-ambient-soul-funk-Māori-roots”, Moana & the Tribe formed in 2002. The group has gone on to become one of New Zealand’s most successful Māori acts, with an ever-changing line-up of musicians and performers. Maniapoto is the founding and only consistent member.

“Sometimes Moana & the Tribe can be simply Moana with a guitarist and vocalist in acoustic harmony. At times, the group morphs into a full band with a string section, four warriors and moving images. Mostly, it’s somewhere in between,” the band is described on Maniapoto’s website.

An art laureate, TV presenter and New Zealand Music Hall of Fame inductee, Maniapoto won the Grand Jury Prize at the International Songwriting Contest with her spoken word track Moko. Her previous band, Moana and the Moahunters, was awarded the Independent Music NZ Classic Record Award at the Taite Music Prize in 2019 for their 1993 album Tahi.

At the 2024 Voyager Media Awards, Maniapoto won the Te Tohu Kairangi Award for her work with Whakaata Māori/Māori Television. The award was jointly won with journalist Mihingarangi Forbes.

Ono marks Maniapoto’s sixth studio album.

Morrison, a long-time collaborator of Maniapoto’s, currently presents the Māori current affairs programmes Te Karere and Marae. He is an inaugural member of Te Mātāwai, the group charged with the responsibility of revitalising Māori language, and is manukura at TVNZ.

Among his songwriting credits are the haka-fusion protest song Te Apo, the Māori Battalion tribute Pae o Riri, and Ūpokohue, which placed in the International Songwriting Competition.

Meanwhile, Free is a composer and producer known for his blend of electronica and traditional Māori music. He has produced albums for Ngā Tae, Toni Huata, Salmonella Dub and Moana & the Tribe and is one-half of the electronic duo Pitch Black. Free has written music for theatre and film, such as Whetū Mārama - Bright Star, and the theme for current affairs show Te Ao with Moana, hosted by Maniapoto.

Ono will be released on CD and vinyl as well as digitally on November 1. The sixth and final song, Ātahu - Hawai’i, is set to be released with a music video on October 28.