TVNZ will celebrate this year's Matariki with music extravaganza headlined by Stan Walker.
Purapura Whetū - Stars of Matariki will see Te Reo Tataki (TVNZ) and TikTok partner up to bring together musicians and performers for a night of live waiata.
Walker will be joined by Paige, Muroki, Jordyn with a Why, sensational vocalist Seth Haapu, and the spell-bounding Makayla Purcell-Mainini.
Purapura Whetū - Stars of Matariki can be live-streamed online at TVNZ+ and TVNZ's TikTok @tvnz.official from 8 pm on Friday, 14 July.
Musician Dame Hinewehi Mohi said that music has been an important part of New Zealand's identity and a way to celebrate our culture.
"I think what we've discovered over the last few years is that we have been looking inside and in our isolation here in South Pacific, we really celebrated ourselves and our storytelling and our unique way of expressing ourselves, so this is an extension of that.
"It's really a statement to our unique identity, our cultural heritage and how we can express it through music" she said on Breakfast.
She said NZ's embracing of Māori culture had seen various Māori artists come to the fore.
"I think its quite a different landscape now and those artists, especially coming through the 90s and early 2000s, singing in Māori was not common. So, I think in terms of people's embrace of the language and the culture, being unique to the whole of Aotearoa and how we can really stamp our mark in the world and I would love to see waiata being taken to the world," said Dame Hinewehi.
Te Reo Tataki (TVNZ)'s Matariki line-up will seek to educate and entertain viewers, with a wide variety of programmes, including the live coverage of the Matariki celebrations form Ngongotaha Mountain (Rotorua) which will be available on TVNZ1, TVNZ+, Three, Prime, Whakaata Māori, Pasifika TV, Radio New Zealand, and Stuff.
Viewers can also explore Te Ao Māori with a series of new shows, providing a peek into Māori culture and content unique to Aotearoa, with shows like Haka Life, which celebrates kapa haka and takes a behind the scenes look at challenges faced by Nga Tumanoko as they compete at Te Matatini, and also watch the groundbreaking 1974 documentary Tangata Whenua.
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