Long-time collaborators Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu) and Bob Bickerton join forces as Muriwai, a duo and musical concept six years in the making. They are set to release a new album and will perform at the Cambridge Town Hall under the auspices of Chamber Music New Zealand.

Muriwai refers to a confluence of two rivers, with the music of Bickerton and Tikao coming together as a convergence of Māori and Celtic musical traditions through waiata, taonga puoro and Celtic harp. These interlinked musical journeys through time and place begin with a Kāi Tahu creation story relating to water, moving through to the arrival of people in Aotearoa, our impact on the environment, and imagined consequences of our actions.

The music explores the use of taonga puoro and harp in new ways, all enhanced by Bickerton’s considerable audio production skills, to create never-before-heard soundscapes.

The pair met through their association with the late Richard Nunns who mentored and performed with Tikao and who was a friend and musical colleague of Bickerton. “We’ve worked together on a number of projects now, and Muriwai has been a slow-burning side project that we’ve had to fit around other kaupapa such as the Ngā Hau Ngākau exhibition soundtrack, a Tikao whānau album of waiata, and Hākui - an online resource bringing back the art of oriori writing (birth chants) to Kāi Tahu whānau, all of which Bob has been lending his skills to. I’m so pleased that we can finally share this mahi with people now”.

Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu) is a composer and performer of waiata in te reo Māori, and an accomplished taonga puoro player. She has performed as a soloist for many of Aotearoa’s orchestras and chamber groups such as Stroma and the New Zealand String Quartet. She has collaborated with a diverse array of artists such as Louise Pōtiki Bryant, Paddy Free, Alien Weaponry, and Shayne Carter, and has recently been performing in Europe and Brazil. She is also the co-author of two books Mokorua and Te Rā: The Māori Sail, and a published poet. In 2020 the New Zealand Arts Foundation awarded her the inaugural Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Laureate Award.

Bob Bickerton is a performer of both traditional Irish music and taonga puoro and has recorded with Richard Nunns, Aroha Yates-Smith as well as many others. He has performed extensively in concerts, festivals and schools around Aotearoa, including with the New Zealand String Quartet in the Adam Chamber Music Festival and the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts. Bob was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2015 New Year’s Honours list for services to music.