Hinewehi mohi biography

Hinewehi Mohi has many admirers — for her distinctive, pure and beautiful voice, her songwriting, her advocacy of te reo Māori, her courage in coping with breast cancer, her commitment to her family and especially to her daughter, Hineraukatauri, and her work in developing music therapy for those with special needs. And that doesn’t cover all her achievements. Here, with Dale, she touches on some of the milestones in her life.

 

Over recent weeks, Hinewehi, with all the television focus on the All Blacks and the Rugby World Cup, we’ve been taken back a few times to Twickenham, one of your old haunts, where you set disapproving tongues wagging — and many hearts swelling with pride — when you sang the New Zealand national anthem in Māori.

That was 1999. But, although that’s now 16 years ago, that bold move of yours is still fresh in our minds. And I suppose it’s something that you reflect on, from time to time.

In a way, it was a huge step for me because I’m probably the least activist person in our entire family. I’m not comfortable with confrontation.

But, in anot

Dame Hinewehi Mohi announced as Recorded Music NZ 2024 Te Whare Taonga Puoro o Aotearoa | NZ Music Hall of Fame inductee

25 years since the release of Jaz Coleman-produced debut album Oceania. 25 years since the Māori national anthem at the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham. 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust. 5th anniversary of Waiata Anthems.

Many people have been exposed to and learnt te reo Māori because of Dame Hinewehi Mohi (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tūhoe). Hinewehi learnt te reo Māori because of her dad.

Having grown up with parents who were of the generations banned from speaking Māori at school – and punished physically if they did so – Mike Mohi and his siblings weren’t taught Māori as children. At age 30, he chose to reclaim his birthright and connect with his cultural identity, an aspiration he held for his own tamariki too.

Hinewehi was 10 at the time and became immersed in te reo through daily lessons with her father – which he always kept one step ahead of – and through listening to vinyl records of waiata reo Māori, such as Ini

Hinewehi Mohi

New Zealand musician and producer

Dame Hinewehi Mohi

DNZM

Mohi in 2021

Born1964 (age 60–61)[1]
Waipukurau, New Zealand
InstrumentVocals
Years active1986–present

Musical artist

Dame Hinewehi MohiDNZM (born 1964) is a New Zealand musician and producer, best known for her double-platinum album Oceania (1999) and its lead single "Kotahitanga (Union)", performing the New Zealand National Anthem in Māori during the 1999 Rugby World Cup, and as a producer for the 2019 Māori language compilation album Waiata / Anthems.

As a television producer, Mohi has worked to produce television programmes such as Mōteatea and Marae DIY.

Early life

Mohi was born in Waipukurau in the Hawke's Bay Region, New Zealand, and is of Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāi Tūhoe descent.[2][3] She attended St Joseph's Māori Girls' College in Taradale, New Zealand, later receiving a BA in Māori from the University of Waikato in 1985, where she was heavily involved with kapa haka groups.[2] At the Universit

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