The Raro Dog

Over the last 18 months The Raro Dog worked with the Pacific Music Awards Trust for their Hiva Folau Vaka project. The project was contributing to language revitalisation through music, creating new songs in the languages of the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau. The songs that were written and recorded were all celebrated on the Hiva Folaua Vaka album, released on Friday 28 November 2025. This was an important purpose and an amazing project to be part of and we look forward to sharing the content from this project here.

It’s ok to make mistakes - cooking show aims to inspire te reo learners A pilot cooking comedy in te reo Māori hopes to provide a safe place for learners to make mistakes.

Excited to share the news that Āku Hapa! is out now on Māori+

It has been an awesome project to work on, bringing together a great team, good food, reo Māori learning and a lot of laughs. This is also us doing our part to contribute to the larger journey of language revitalisation.

We would appreciate your support to take some time to watch the pilot, which will help us with the next steps to making a series. And we'd love your feedback too.

Sincere thanks to Te Māngai Pāho for the funding and Whakaata Maori for the platform support. Kia ora whanau. Enjoy!

Kua p**a! We're on Māori+! ✨

Check it out and share with your hoa who CAN RELATE:

https://www.maoriplus.co.nz/show/aku-hapa

A few weeks ago I traveled to Hastings to photograph the work of Kalisolaite 'Uhila during his endurance performance for his exhibition, 'Kelekele Mo‘ui (Living Soil)'.

Prior to, the show, Kalisolaite and I, had a discussion about whether or not we should shoot video, stills or film etc. Kalisolaite and I have worked together for approximately a decade or so. For the last 10 years or so it's been considered standard, for us, to shoot video for the documentation and presentation of performance art.

It was Kalisolaite who decided that we should shoot 10 stills to capture the 'traces' of his endurance performance in Hastings. It seems crazy to try to capture a performance with only a handful of images. But it also felt like a watershed moment.

I will be doing an artist talk with my Kalisolaite 'Uhila at Hastings City Art Gallery Saturday 13 July. If you're in the area make sure you come down and have a kōrero!

Ngā mihi!

We are already at the start of the Term 2. Where does the time go. All the parents will be glad that the school holidays are over! Some images from the school holidays. We welcome baby Nikora to the whānau!