Māori musician Stan Walker says he is excited to get to experience the culture, the land and the people when he makes his Maui debut March 21 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. Courtesy photo

Get ready for a brilliant night of music when acclaimed Māori musician Stan Walker will make his Maui debut at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Alexander & Baldwin Amphitheater.

Hailed by New Zealand’s leading website Stuff “as a national treasure” and “an amazing entertainer,” Walker is routinely praised for his powerful, emotional songs typically laced with a reggae rhythm and usually accompanied with stunning videos.

“From one stellar release to the next, the Māori recording artist uses his voice to celebrate identity, not just throughout Aotearoa, but within cultures around the world,” praised Rolling Stone Australia.

Singing songs in English and te reo Māori, Walker most recently released a cover of Bob Marley’s classic “Redemption Song,” with Joel Shadbolt of the New Zealand reggae band L.A.B.

“Bob Marley, for me, is the greatest musician that ever lived,” Walker says. “He was a prophet. I thought he was Māori growing up. Then my Samoan mate goes, ‘No, he’s Samoan.’ I was like, ‘No, he’s Māori.’ My big brother overheard us saying, ‘You idiot. He’s Jamaican.’ He spoke and sang from a place that I recognized. He sang from the struggle that I grew up in.

“‘Redemption Song’ is so relevant for what’s happening in the world today, not just here in Aotearoa, but the whole world. It’s this whole thing of freeing yourself from your own self-bondage and mental slavery, and taking ownership of yourself and being able to speak your mind freely. With everything that’s happening in the world, there’s no better time to set people free from whatever bondage that you’ve put yourself in or situations that you’ve been put in. For me, it’s a beautiful song. Bob Marley, he’s the king.”

In the last few years, Walker has released several popular songs that empower cultural pride. One of the most recent, the inspirational anthem “Māori Ki Te Ao” (Māori to the world), accompanied by a remarkable video, has resonated with Native people around the world.

“It’s a legacy plan for me,” he says. “I’m trying to make songs and videos that bring in the next generation so that this becomes theirs and then they carry on with theirs. The opening note is like, He Māori ahau, I am Māori. Āke ake, forever more. I am Tūhoe. So it’s actually honing in to our identity because the blanket term is Māori, but we’re actually made up of individual nations within Aotearoa. It was to encourage people to hone in and be proud when people ask, ‘Who are you?’ Instead of saying Māori. Yes, you are Māori, but I’m Tūhoe.

“I’ve been in the stage of my life for the last 8 years of creating a legacy for my children and my grandchildren, for the next generation,” he continues. “Growing up, I didn’t have the best examples or people to look to or videos that expressed and showed our culture in a beautiful, strong way. Just being able to share our culture in a creative way has been such an honor and a privilege. I love what I get to do and the messaging and the imagery and the representation is important.”

In 2021, Walker released “Te Arohanui,” his first album sung all in te reo Māori, a creative choice that would have been almost impossible in the early days of his career.

“When I first started my career in Australia, being Māori, being Polynesian in Australia was not a thing that was celebrated often, especially within the music industry. It wasn’t championed. So I had to find my own feet and find myself coming back home to Aotearoa, to New Zealand to be able to express that freely. It was something that was almost like shut down in many ways within the industry in Australia.

Stan Walker will make his Maui debut at 7 p.m. March 21 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center with High Watah opening the show. Courtesy photo

“The reclamation of identity and almost reconciliation and rebirth of who I am, it was beautiful to be able to do that and to express myself freely in every single way, creatively, culturally and emotionally. To be able to talk about the things I want to talk about in my own Native tongue has been the most empowering thing for myself and my artistry and also my fans. That was something that was kind of hush-hushed and told not to do, and it’s the very thing that has put me on the world stage. My culture, my language and being Māori is the very thing that has taken me to the world and connected me deeper to my fans and to the world.”

As part of that journey, Walker was exposed to the global stage when he was invited to sing the rousing song “I Am” for Ava DuVernay’s film “Origin.” Hailed by Variety as “a masterpiece,” it was an adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” exploring racism.

“For Ava to so graciously have me on the film ‘Origin,’ I just was so blown away,” says Walker. “The way that it’s being able to connect to people and empower people and reconnect people back to who they are and their culture and their identity has been exactly what I was hoping it to be.”

Folks on YouTube from many nations have thanked him for the song. One commented: “As a Namibian of the Nama tribe having had our land stolen by colonizers then oppressed by apartheid South Africa this song speaks volume.”

Along with infusing reggae into his songs, he is also a superb soul singer, releasing the powerful “Back to the River,” last year, which recalled classic Sam Cooke.

“I grew up on soul music and gospel music,” he says. “I always want to go back into soul because it’s easy for me to sing like that, feel like that and write like that.”

A video for the song was partly filmed at the Whanganui River, which has the distinction of being the first river in the world to have its own legal identity as a living entity with the same legal rights as a human being.

“I’m so proud especially to be able to film with my wife on her river, the Whanganui River,” he says. “The river has a legal status of a person. For Lou (Walker) and where she’s from, they see the river as a tīpuna, as an ancestor. She ended up working for the post-settlement entity that was the voice for the river.”

The song described a healing journey “and coming back home,” he says. “Sometimes you need to go back home to find that healing. It was going back to the river for Māori to go back to your awa, a place of replenishing, a place of healing, a place of sustenance, and a place to remember. And to be grounded in who we are. The river is always that place for us.”

Walker described his path to healing in his revelatory autobiography “Impossible – My Story,” which explored a horrific upbringing of violence and sexual abuse and suffering beatings so regular and severe his bones were broken.

“It’s been a life of healing,” he reports. “I’m just so fortunate that I’ve had some incredible people come into my life over the years, incredible mentors, incredible leaders that have helped me process and go through the journey of healing. The biggest thing for me was actually realizing that it wasn’t my fault. Growing up I was made to feel it was my fault. Once I got an understanding for the situations and for the things that have happened to me, then I was able to forgive myself and love myself.

“A big part of who I am and my journey is to be able to speak about this stuff because I feel like once I speak my truth, then it allows other people to be able to heal and forgive themselves and love themselves and to be able to heal through it. I know the feeling of being set free and to be able to forgive myself and love myself. I’m here for it. It’s something that doesn’t just disappear. It’s a constant journey. It’s not all roses.”

Speaking his truth and helping empower and inspire folks, Walker says, “my ultimate goal is to bring hope, life, healing and joy. If people buy tickets to a show, stream the song, buy my merch, that is just a plus. My whole purpose is through my music, through my words, through my videos, through my representation, through whatever I put out there, is to bring hope, life, healing and joy.”

Super excited to finally get to perform on Maui, he says, “I’ve been to Hawaii a few times, but it’s always been around Waikiki. I can’t wait to come, especially to Maui. I know I get to experience the culture, the land, the people.”

Walker performs at 7 p.m. March 21 at the MACC’s Alexander & Baldwin Amphitheater. Molokai’s High Watah will open. Tickets are $39 and $89 for VIP, plus applicable fees. VIP tickets include front of stage viewing and access to the courtyard. Prices increase the day of the show.