Dame Whina Cooper (Te Rarawa) was known as Te Whaea o Te Motu (The mother of our country). She was an inspirational leader who spearheaded the march from Te Hapua in the far north to the steps of Parliament in 1972 asking the state to preserve the mana and Turangawaewae of the Māori people of Aotearoa (aka NZ).

This music video focuses on her mission to raise awareness around Māori land rights. She brought together a raft of kaupapa around racial equality, kaitiakitanga the right to govern our own land, alienation of land, loss of mana, and many grievances and claims of the Māori of Aotearoa. She put that all into the hikoi (march) and galvanised it with the term ‘NOT 1 ACRE MORE’. Made with the support of Te Māngai Pāho, we were able to create something that celebrates a wahine with mana and a vital message.

The full version will be released 24th June 2022 to coincide with the release of the movie ‘Whina’.

“In July of 2020 I rang my partner to tell her about a dream I just had, where Dame Whina Cooper had come to me with a vivid message. But before I had a chance to tell her this, she was excited to tell me that a kuia in the Hospital bed next to her mum who was convalescing shared her proudest achievement, which was the walking on the march with Dame Whina Cooper in 1975 and the experience of walking over the harbour bridge. At that moment we knew that this was a tohu (sign)”.

The production for Whina-walk of freedom began in 2020. Is it a coincidence that the single and movie were in production at the same time? Some would say it was a tohu(sign). The original release date for the single was summer 2021 but with Covid slowing production down we postponed the launch until Feb 2022. The next barrier was the anti-vaccine, anti-mandate occupation of the grounds of Parliament House. We did not want to release during this occupation. We decided that we would launch the day after Whina the movie was released. One of the motives behind this decision was that our single Whina- Walk of freedom chronologically happens after the events of Dame Whina’s story in the movie.