Acclaimed singer and songwriter Moana Maniapoto is part of a new 21 member collaborative booked to play in the Homegrown Festival at the Sydney Opera House on April 5.
Maniapaoto and her group, The Tribe, have teamed up with Scottish band Breabach and a collection of Australian indigenous performers to form The Boomerang Project.
The collective made its debut appearance during the Womad festival in New Plymouth last month and is now setting its sights further afield.
It will also perform in Scotland three months after the Sydney gig during the Heb Celt Festival on the Isle of Lewis and at other events for the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
The group spent just one week writing and rehearsing in a surf club at Maniapoto’s home patch of Muriwai on Auckland’s west coast prior to Womad.
“We were able to really focus, relax and build trust, which is important when you have so many individuals, let alone creatives, in the one room,” Maniapoto says.
“We’d work hard then break for a barbecue, work again, then everyone would go for a swim.”
Moana and the Tribe has already made its mark overseas – touring Europe in 2006 and playing in the Soviet Union.
Members have included Paora Sharples – son of Maori Party co leader Pita Sharples.
Manipaoto was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2004.
The Boomerang Project is being funded by Creative NZ, the Australia Arts Council and Creative Scotland.
