TRAVEL & COLLABS | Hū Hā Music

2025: Uk RESIDENCE THE LONG SONG UK, CYMRU, SCOTLAND, CANADA, JAPAN, SXSWSYDNEY and WOMEX25

HūHā Music contributes our mahi (work) with extensive travels, researching and connecting with global partners to assist and consult around global trade paths for our music as creative digital exports and as music professionals. 2025 has seen a number of eye-opening exchanges, including a residency in Scotland, as part of the 'Long Song Project', another trip to Wales, a part of the Te Aratini indigenous Week in Osaka, Japan.

Working alongside Matariki Cultural Foundation, HūHĀ Music has been able to be part of many international First nation and indigenous discusions, welcomed back to facilitate meetups and panels, as well as set up for 2026.

The Artists we have showcased digitally have gone on to perform at these global showcases, and HūHā music will continue to consult and provide opportunities that see them moving beyond Aotearoa New Zealand and into a more global scope for te reo Māori music.

2025:
WIPCE (November) Sponsored delegate for Māori development
WOMEX (October) delegate and speaker for Pan-Indigenous Network (Finland)
SXSW Sydney (October) delegate and speaker, First Nation Lounge with Awesome Black

Going Global (NZ)- delegate and speaker (Japan Music Industry - Asian NZ Foundation, IMCJ)
Amotai (NZ) - Māori Wāhine in Business
NZ Fashion Week (NZ) - Guest - Music for Karen Walker Show, Untouched Work, Graduate Shows, Greatest Hits Show, with Dan Awha and designers.
Osaka World Expo (Osaka, Japan) delegate, speaker and performer (Indigenous Week Show)
International Indigenous Music Summit (Canada) delegate, performer and speaker (AI indigeneity)
Imaginative Film Festival (Canada) delegate and performer
Knockengorroch Festival (Scotland), The Long Song residency exchange and performer
The Great Escape (UK, Brighton) delegate
Focus Wales (Cyrmu, Wales) delegate and residency for the British Council and Trac Wales
The Long Song Residency in Music - Aotearoa and Turtle Island (Canada) exchange

NOMINATIONS:
Best Creative in Business - Wāhine Matu, WMDI (Kog Studio, upcoming awards in October)
Best Creative in Tech - Te Hapori Matehiko (HūHā & Kog Studio)

2024: SXSW Sydney, CYMRU, WOMEX24, LONDON, JAPAN

Rei and Huia: Electrifying the UK with Te Reo Māori. Award-winning artists Rei and Huia are took their music to the UK adding some electro-haka dance music in te reo Māori to Australia, Wales, Manchester and London.

Let’s get to the flash part! Rei had an official showcase at SXSW Sydney and off-WOMEX 2024, the first Aotearoa NZ artist to do so in a long time. Huia had 3 panels for SXSW and WOMEX alongside other indigenous voices such as Juno award winner ShoShona Kish (Canada), Sarah Curruchich (Guatemala), Mario Amahiro Tuki (Chile/Rapanui), Sarah Ajnnak (Norway) and Hinurewa Te Hau (Aotearoa).

Their journey started in Sydney for SXSW, where they joined First Nation Kaleena Smith (Au) and Anishinaabe artist Aysanabee, (Turtle Island, Canada) and chur the wha-yes Swizl Jager (Aotearoa). The panel was called ‘Culture Collaboration: Shaping our Future with Indigenous/First Nation/Bilingual Music’, hosted by ‘Awesome Black’ Gadigal mob in their First Nation lounge. Huia was invited back to facilitate this Meet-Up after a successful 2023 panel.

“We have such diverse music styles in te reo Māori and I’ve found most of the global community don’t know where to look for new te reo Māori music for their festivals. They all respect our culture and our language! I love sharing what we do and creating opportunities” says Huia.

The first stop wasCymru (Wales) where they are attended ‘Gwrando’ music circle in the Welsh mountains, a Welsh Arts Council incentive, plus writing sessions on their travels.

“We have a unique opportunity for te reo Māori musicians to collaborate and tour with their music. There is so much to learn from other artists, hearing their languages or indigenous stories. We’ve seen our te reo encourage others to start singing in their native languages and that is powerful”, says Rei.

Rei knows this as he recently dropped a tune called ‘Still Here’ with Drezus (Cree, Anishinaabe) and Drmngnow (Au Yorta Yorta) and has more collaborations on the way. This global music network started with Hinurewa Te Hau (Matariki Foundation) connecting and supporting them to attend WOMEX (Portugal) in 2022 and the International Indigenous Music Summit in Canada in 2023 and 2024.

Huia then then headed off to Japan with HūHā Music for the Tokyo International Music Market where she will be looking into the Nippon market, how it works and where we can showcase our talent, and of course, collaborate!

Supported by the Matariki Foundation, Kog Chief Records, HūHā Music, Outward Sound (NZMIC) and Waiata Anthems. Keep an eye on their social media (links below) for updates and get on the waka!

www.musicbyrei.com @musicbyrei // www.iamhuia.com @iamhuia