The band IWI was formed in 1996 with a mission to promote te reo Maori and positive messages of enlightenment and encouragement to our people. The debut album was predominantly in te reo Maori with some English elements to help convert the 80% of non te reo speakers of Maori descent to embrace the values of our culture. “It was extremely heartening to receive a NZ Music award in 1999 as acknowledgement of that effort”.

Now embarking on album #2, IWI have embraced the use of te reo even furher! ‘Te Kawa Tuarua’ has a higher percentage of language content which exceeds 95%. We hope audience or the listener will be encouraged to express their identity, take on some of the advice that we speak of and use some of the rarangi korero in the songs towards their daily language and knowledge usage.

“Never again will we let the language be destined to that which faced the moa and the huia bird”. “We strive to make Te Reo Māori appealing, funky, hip and relevant”. The band does this by delivering in a manner that is attractive to the young and solid enough for the old. “We gotta make the young’ins head nod and the oldies feet tap”.

IWI is heavily influenced by the three core music genres of R’n’B, Hip Hop and Roots Rock Reggae. IWI also ventures into the unfamiliar arena of blues and some alternative acoustic colours to demonstrate the bands flexibility within various genre.