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The music video directed by Louise Potiki Bryant for Ariana Tikao's song TUIA, won ‘Best Music Video' at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Awards in Toronto, Canada, on October 19th 2009. TUIA is the title track of the Ariana's critically acclaimed second solo album, Te Waka Toi, released in 2008.
The video was shot, directed and edited by Louise Potiki Bryant last year. The editing process, which Louise equates to the process of painting, involved developing the footage of these actual landscapes into textured, dream-like worlds.
She filmed Ariana in culturally significant landscapes on Banks Peninsula and surrounding areas. Ariana's Kai Tahu tipuna (ancestors) lived in various kaika, or villages all over Banks Peninsula, as well as Tuahiwi, a settlement north of Christchurch.
Ariana has just been named a finalist in the Waiata Maori Awards for Best Maori Female Solo Artist. She recently worked with Louise again to develop her new show for the Christchurch Arts Festival, OHAKI. This was also funded by the Ngai Tahu Fund.
Ariana is currently being represented by Creative New Zealand's international team at the WOMEX expo in Copenhagen, and again next month at AWME (Australasian World Music Expo) in Melbourne, and Ariana's latest single was included on a compilation album Creative New Zealand produced for these expos. Ariana is also going to AWME in November as a delegate.
TUIA meaning ‘stitched' is a metaphor for the connections between people, within and across generations. The award at alterNATIVE has given these Kai Tahu artists affirmation of the quality and significance of their collaborative work within an international context.