Māori musician Theia spreads the message to get out and get vaccinated against COVID-19.
If you want to be able to go to music festivals and enjoy summer, get vaccinated.
That's the message from Kiwi artist Theia, who is throwing her weight behind The 90% Project being run by the Herald in an effort to encourage 90 per cent of the country's eligible population to get vaccinated by Christmas.
"With summer coming up, our music industry just won't be able to survive. Our live shows and festivals and everything won't be able to survive without people coming along, so it's just so important that our young ones, and anyone who's a fan of music, gets fully vaccinated so that we can still hold these really, really cool festivals and things," said the Auckland-based singer-songwriter.
She also appealed for te iwi Māori to take up the opportunity to be vaccinated in order to protect their families and communities.
"I absolutely understand the fear and mistrust that can develop, especially in this day and age with so much happening on social media. It can be really hard to sift through everything and all the misinformation and things like that.
Kiwi singer Theia says young people need to get vaccinated to save New Zealand's festival season. Photo / Dean Purcell
"I'm not a scientist but just looking at the stats and how much it benefits people if they have been fully vaccinated, in terms of arming their bodies to be able to fight Covid, is profound.
"If that's not enough, just think of your wider community and just trying to protect our nannies and protect our young ones. If we all do it, I would say that the positives massively outweigh the risks. I just want us to be able to get back to some sort of normality."
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The Christchurch-born musician, best known for her songs Roam and Not Your Princess, said her job meant it was important to get vaccinated as soon as possible so she could continue travelling, performing and recording.
"I can't do any of that at the moment being in lockdown, as everyone else has as well, for seven weeks. Without being vaccinated I'm not able to travel overseas or really partake in anything to do with my job so it was really important to me to be fully protected and know that I'm safe."
Theia, real name Em-Haley Walker, said she spoke about getting vaccinated with her manager and they went to Ōtara to get vaccinated after getting a text about a vaccination event for Māori and Pasifika.
"I felt like it was a really positive environment and it was super cool having our people vaccinate us. It was a kind of empowering moment where a lot of te whānau Māori and te whānau Pasifika were out there together and made us feel really comfortable."
Going to get vaccinated with someone else helped calm the nerves, she said.
"I would say if anyone is worried or just anxious about going by themselves it helps so much if you go with other people you care about or a trusted group. It's just really nice. As we were doing it I was like I hope that we never have to do this again but it's so special that we can do it together and know that we're contributing."
She also reflected on the importance of vaccination for the industry.
"I know for myself, and I'm sure it's like that for a lot of other musicians, festivals and shows have been cancelled which really sucks so it's critical that we can get back to that because that's the livelihood for a lot of our people."
