Our People: Rewa Ututaonga

As a child of Te Arawa, Rewa Ututaonga does what comes naturally ... she sings.

She's done so since she was 5 and a member of her parents' cultural group, performing initially at Ohinemutu then, over the next decade, at virtually every hotel and nightspot hosting Maori concerts and hangi.

However, Rewa's not just any poi twirling songstress, she's a top-ranking mezzo soprano, her repertoire predominantly R&B, soul and pop.

Given her talent it's somewhat surprising she didn't come under the spotlight until her 20s and after her marriage to drummer Mickey Ututaonga.

For those who've grown up with Rotorua showbands and performers here's another "not surprisingly''. She and Mickey met at the Tudor Towers cabaret. He was in the backing group for the "real retro haka boogie'' concert party she performed in. She was 17 and, we suspect, a tad star struck, so when Mickey asked her to join him on a South Island tour she was off like a shot, living on the band's bus. "It broke my father's heart, he'd brought me up to be a really good Mormon girl.''

Despite that beautiful voice of hers, Rewa didn't sing a note during the six months the band spent performing in "all these little hick places I'd never heard of''.

But her vocal skills hadn't been forgotten. She was invited to audition for the cultural group to accompany the National Brass Band on a three-month US  tour.

It was, she says, "an eye-opening experience''. Near Washington the group's bus was surrounded by hooded Ku Klux Klan members chanting and waving blazing torches.

"It was like something you see on TV. For the first time in my life I was really frightened.  As a Maori I felt anger.''

That was a one-off ... Rewa loved the tour and the taste it gave her for performing. Home, she entered her first talent quest at the behest of her uncle, Five Doors Restaurant owner Len Ruhi.

Judge Prince Tui Teka invited her to join his top-rating television shows. ``I had to audition for the producers, the directors, it was horrible. I was 21 and by the time I made my debut seven months' pregnant.''

She and Mickey, who'd become the drummer with Rotorua's top-rating band Cairo, married two years after daughter Karamoana's birth.

Meanwhile, she'd become a television regular. "Singing had become my life.''

Without a smidgen of formal training Rewa  was being invited to appear at the country's big gigs, the Bill Clinton-attended Auckland Apec conference included.

Keeping an accurate time-line on what the versatile Rewa's done when and where's not easy. She and Mickey have moved around the country and crossed the Tasman "but whanau  have always brought us home [Rotorua].''

While Wellington-based, she was a cabaret regular and there was a decade-long period when weekends were spent touring as the female half of the Chat Back Duo.

She's been a regular on a host of entertainment specials, the Good Morning show and performed at the Halberg and Maori Sports Awards.

The personal high note was when she and Mickey shared Auckland's Civic

Theatre stage with Dame Malvina Major and Sir Howard Morrison to mark the latter's 50 years  in showbiz.

Sir Howard invited the Ututaongas to join the  "Knight With A Dame'' nationwide tour. ``To be honest Howie saved our bacon, we were just back from Oz and [financially] strapped.''

Which brings us to her off-stage working life. Eyeing a qualification that would take her into travel she began study towards a New Zealand Certificate in Commerce at the then Waiariki Community College. A course requirement was that she find a part-time job. ``The first door I knocked on was Mt Cook Travel which took me on in reservations, when someone left I got a full-time travel consultant's job so that was the end of my study because the whole aim of the course had been to get work.''

Despite her moves around the country Mt Cook Travel remained her employer.  In Auckland she worked on check-in desks at both the domestic and international airport terminals, a position she'd already held in Rotorua. She only quit after putting her back out lifting luggage. "There were no conveyor belts in those days.''

She returned to Waiariki to study for a tourism management diploma, however during the summer break her career took another turn. Applying for the unemployment benefit to tide her over, a Winz staffer told her she was too qualified to languish on the dole. She was offered work as a national claims processing officer with Winz parent body, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), remaining until she and Mickey crossed the Tasman. At the end of the "A Knight with A Dame'' tour MSD again opened its doors to her; she's presently a customer services purchasing officer.

But the local gigs continue, and not all profit-driven. This is a signer who doesn't shy away from using her talents to benefit charitable causes. Tonight she's among the headline acts at the Tama revival dance, fundraising for St Faith's. "Musos have to remember it's not always all about the coin.''

As one of those at the top layer of Rotorua's chock-full entertainment kete we ask doesn't she feel just the tiniest bit famous? The look we get is genuinely bemused. ``Goodness no, I'm just lucky to have a reasonable voice and to have been given some great opportunities.''

REWA UTUTAONGA (NEE RORASON)

Born: Rotorua, 1961

Education: Rotorua Primary, Kaitao Intermediate, Rotorua Girls' High, Church College,  two spells at the now Waiariki Institute of Technology

Family: Husband Mickey (a drummer, graphic designer and website developer), daughter Karamoana, one granddaughter, two grandsons

Interests: Whanau, friends, music, walking,  Maori culture (presently teaching vocals with the Morrison family group Nga Uri o Te Whanaoa)

On Rotorua's music scene: "It's alive and kicking. We do as much as possible to support our fellow musos, I just wish all musos did that.''

Personal philosophy: "Good health, good friends, a long life.''