The music video, filmed near Rangiriri Pā, symbolises Māori resilience and commemorates the 1863 battle.
Walker aimed to create an anthem for Indigenous peoples, blending traditional instruments and cultural symbolism.
The vocals and the words that open Stan Walker’s new single Mō Āke Tonu might be familiar to many New Zealanders and others around the world.
Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, New Zealand’s youngest MP and Te Pāti Māori member, sings the same pao [poem] that preceded a haka she led in Parliament to protest the Treaty Principles Bill last year. Footage from the moment went viral.
In the video for the single, which dropped over the weekend, Maipi-Clarke is draped in a white gown and sings the pao Taku kupu ki a koe manuwhiri [My Words to you, Visitor] in front of a lake near Rangiriri Pā. In 1863, more than 100 Māori women and children perished there during the battle between Māori and British forces.
Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke wears Māori designer Kiri Nathan in the music video for Stan Walker's "Mō Āke Tonu".
Even though Maipi-Clarke is a politician, she doesn’t see her role in the single and music video as a political strategy. The vocals of Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi were featured in a Tipene music video earlier this year. Waititi and Maipi-Clarke have a strong history of kapa haka involvement.
“It’s about how we can tell, how we can just snapshot this moment in time, because it’s been such an emotional rollercoaster – not just the Treaty Principles Bill, but various legislation that impacts [Māori],” says 22-year-old Maipi-Clarke.
“That sometimes a waiata [song], or as we normally see most times, is what really encapsulates that all, and it’s basically like photographing a moment.”
Many in Maipi-Clarke’s generation have long taken inspiration from the 34-year-old musician’s work and “his ability to express the kaupapa [cause] of the day,” she says.
A scene from the "Mō Āke Tonu" filmed at Rangiriri Pā.
While Walker and Maipi-Clarke were not connected through whakapapa [family], Walker said he was good friends with her cousins.
“I asked her because I felt like the story that I wanted to tell, she was very much a part of the story today, in terms of the narrative of our people and where we’ve come from.”
That narrative is about the generations of Māori who have fought or marched or protested for “our rights, for our language, for our land, for our people, for equality ... ”
“We’re still doing it ... it looks a bit different these days, but nonetheless.”
Walker picked Maipi-Clarke’s white gown from leading Māori fashion designer Kiri Nathan. It’s a symbol of purity and bucks a tendency for Māori to wear black for mourning, which Walker believes is not a traditional colour for Māori.
“[Maipi-Clarke] also represents a fair maiden. She is calling on her people. She is the representative of who has been gone. She is calling us back into that space.”
Those physical locations in the music video are around Rangiriri Pā, the location of the Waikato War’s fiercest battles.
Mō Āke Tonu is partly a history lesson, something Walker dug deeper into as he mapped out the music video’s concept. He grew up visiting the pā with his whānau each year to commemorate the battle and didn’t give it too much thought.
“But just the connections, the deep whakapapa within there is crazy, and if it wasn’t for those people back then, we wouldn’t even be here. I wouldn’t exist.”
“So like, you best believe I’ve got to learn my history.”
Throughout the music video, Walker wears various greenstone and bone taonga [treasured jewellery]. Much of it is his or connected to him. However, it isn’t his taonga that went missing at a music festival in 2024. That “priceless” taonga has not been returned, despite his numerous public appeals.
Walker also wears numerous rugs and fabrics that reflect not just Māori but other Indigenous populations globally, including Africa and the Middle East. The track blends traditional indigenous instruments. Didgeridoo is played by Australian First Nations artist Walter Stewart and boomerangs from Nooky, a First Nations hip-hop artist.
Stan Walker in his music video for Mō Āke Tonu.
Walker is positioning Mō Āke Tonu as an anthem for other Indigenous people, “people groups that have been colonised and marginalised and we have shared histories and shared stories and similar shared histories”.
“There’s meaning behind everything from what I was wearing to how we were dressed – to everything, to what Hana was wearing, to just everything.”
