Hamon Art x Lorde - Te Ao Mārama - Solar Power
'Serene' Rei Hamon x Lorde
Earlier this year, we got a phone call asking us if we would be open to licensing one of out koros pictures to be the artwork for a new EP project. Huia worked with Ella and ger manager over a few months to make sure the project would have the right tikanga and continue the legacy of our koro's art and his message. It was very important for us to know and understand why they wanted to use our koros artwork and how.
Once thing that we really appreciated is that and they let us know very early that all the proceeds were to go to charities who were championing the rights of our fauna, manu (birds), ngangara (insects) and native ngahere (forest). We put forward 2 organisations that Papa contibuted to - one being Forest and Bird Aotearoa, who will recieve half of the profits from this EP.
Papa Rei was of the generation who was stripped and denied thier native language - te reo Māori. He would laugh that when our nan told him off as he could undererstand te reo, but not reply in te reo (he thought this was hilarious). This always gave our nan Maia, a fluent speaker, in her quiet wisdom, the upper hand.
We were beaming to learn that the EP would be in te reo Māori and also the Māori tangata (people) who has created the waiata (songs) with her. Being that Papa was Māori (Ngāti Porou, Te Aitanga ā Māhaki) and played Hawaiian guitar with our nan on organ, it was really wonderful opportunity.
Kei te mahana taku ngākau mō tēnā - My heart is warmed by this.
We tautoko (support) everyone speaking te reo Māori - mō te reo. We hope that this encourages people who are not yet on their journey, to start. This includes our own whānau, who were not brought up with te reo Māori and are all in the process of relearning through waiata and also online courses - mō te reo.
Our Papa Rei had the same kaupapa about the forest and te Māori as Ella (Lorde) explained to us and this was one of the reasons we allowed them to license part of the image of 'Serene'. The Vingette and colouriation of 'Serene' has created a new dynamic and our Papa was not shy of colour as he often voiced to us that he wished he had done more artwork in colour.
You can see the 'Te Ao Mārama' artwork here and pre-order a Vinyl copy.
All profits are donated, all the producing, recording and marketing is paid for by Lordes Aotearoa based label and team at Universal.
Whakaronga (listen) to the Te Ao EP here and watch the videos below with different version of the artwork!
Ngā mihi to Alex, Ella and the Universal team for being great to connect with for this project. x