Weaving Welsh with waiata

Te reo meets Cymraeg in a musical project partly spearheaded by Kawiti Waetford, an opera singer with connections to Wales. 

- RICHARD BETTS

You probably saw it on the news. Last month, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa ONZ, one of our most revered cultural figures, was honoured at Parliament. The occasion was Dame Kiri's 80th birthday but this was a celebration of a life, not a day. There were speeches, there were waiata, and then it happened: for the first time since retiring almost a decade ago, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sang in public. She's still got it, of course, the glorious voice. It wouldn't fill Covent Garden or La Scala but there's that sound, pure and true, and it earned her a standing ovation from the assembled politicians. Largely overlooked in all the excitement is that it wasn't Dame Kiri's rendition of Pōkarekare Ana at all; she was just singing to support the guy to her right.

"I thought I'd help Kawiti out," she told Newshub afterwards, "because he was most probably nervous. I wasn't," which is a very Dame Kiri thing to say. A few weeks later, lounging on a sofa in Joel Little's Big Fan recording studios, Kawiti Waetford (Ngāti Hine, Ngātiwai, Ngāti Rangi, Ngāpuhi) is entirely relaxed, quite tired, and laughing in a way that suggests he's a little bit embarrassed Dame Kiri outed him as anxious. "It was a privilege to be there to support her," Waetford says.