Newsmaker: Hinerongonui Kingi

Hinerongonui Kingi PHOTO/STEPHEN PARKER 101014sp10.JPG

This week's newsmaker is the talented Hinerongonui Kingi who has been instrumental in putting together the Koiora Music Fundraiser concert for the families of Kanea Hicks and Kaine Lewis.

Tell us a bit about yourself

I'm extremely passionate within the creative performing arts areas including music, kapa haka, dance, theatre, acting, creative writing and composing. I was raised in a supportive whanau alongside my six brothers and am humbled to have been taught the importance of manaakitanga and aroha from a young age. I strive to push myself beyond my own boundaries every day with the ambition of eventually being able to hopefully help and inspire others to push themselves as well.

What motivated you to help fundraise for the families of Kanea Hicks and Kaine Lewis?

I believe the seed was planted within myself after I visited Kanea in hospital alongside a handful of my Te Mataarae i Orehu whanau. She hadn't been in hospital for very long and at the time we were given the news you pray you will never hear about a loved one. The following days I was consumed by grief for our whole whanau and pulled out my guitar and put those feelings into a song. When my kapa haka team started thinking of ideas to help Kanea and her whanau, the music fundraising concert idea was favoured and without thinking too much about the logistics of organising such an event I used the aroha I have for the whanau to help push me and eventually it all become a natural process. When I heard from a friend about Kaine and his whanau going through a similar experience I approached the whanau and asked them if we could fundraise for them also and they were humbled to be a part of the experience, as we, the members of Te Mataarae I Orehu are.

Where has your career in performing arts taken you?

I was fortunate to have grown up in a musical whanau. My father has played a huge role in my development as a singer/musician and took me out gigging alongside him from the age of 10. For years me and my whanau enjoyed helping out at different functions playing and singing music at boxing gigs, weddings, birthdays, kapa haka events, private functions and in bars around the North Island. After 10 years of this I decided to push myself further and travelled to Dubai where I worked as a singer/dancer/cultural entertainer for six months.

Once I reached a place where I felt I had learnt all I could I moved back and decided to audition at Toi Whakaari where I studied acting the following year. For personal reasons I decided I needed to venture off again and continue learning so I auditioned to become a dancer/performer with Mau Theatre Company. I have been extremely grateful and privileged to work and travel with Mau and share our work Stones in her mouth directed by Lemi Ponifasio in Los Angeles, Belgium, Australia, Toronto, Noumea and at the New Zealand Arts Festival held in Wellington earlier this year.
Kapa haka is another element of performing arts I have grown up in and am still extremely passionate about. It's also the arena where I met Kanea.

What does the future hold for you?

I have finally gained the courage and confidence to share my music with others and hope to release an EP in the near future, hopefully continue to travel the world with my theatre company and kapa haka whanau, get further involved in the acting industry, pick up the creative writing craft more and prepare for the 2014 Matatini competition.

Tell us three things about yourself that most people would not know.

I don't do many things without my sounds.
I like watching funny YouTube clips in my spare time.
I turn into a little kid when I'm around animals.