Singer, songwriter Hoani Kake, known as Hazaduz, has performed alongside music icon Che Fu as a backing vocalist for 15 years. Today he says he's taking a stand for the whānau at Ihumātao by filming the video clip for his new waiata, Taking my SOUL, at the site.
The name of the waiata is adapted from the acronym SOUL, for the advocacy group Save Our Unique Landscape.
"I've seen a lot of division over the last few weeks between Māori and Pākehā, between Māori and Māori. The reason I want to get involved because I am Māori and this is a bigger issue. Not just Ihumātao but Aotearoa in general,” says Kake, of Ngāti Awa.
Kake is originally from Whakatane but has been living with his whānau in Māngere, Auckland for around 10 years. He also works near Ihumātao.
"I finish work at three o'clock in the morning and for the last couple of weeks I head down to Ihumātao, to the frontline and sit there for a couple of hours and just tautoko the kaupapa."
He says, "Maybe a week ago I sat around with some friends in this very shed and we were talking about the issues of the day. Ihumātao came up and we thought ’Why not bring awareness to the kaupapa?'" he says.
It only took two days to write and record the waiata with the help of three other artsits; beatmaker Casey Rarere, Paki Dunn, also known as Pakkz the General, and LENZ.
“The song is more so just encouragement for those who are standing on the frontline."
It also includes a haka.
"We had written a song and we thought ‘shucks, we need something else’ and we thought we'd put in that haka break in there and it fit really well.”
Since sharing a preview of the waiata online, they’ve had a lot of support from people wanting to be a part of it.
"I thought what we can do is have a Taking My SOUL challenge, and take a minute of the beat with the chorus at the start we leave 16 bars for whoever would like to drop a verse."
Kake says more of the online challenge will be made public on Wednesday night, August 7.
The video clip is expected to be released next week.