Ariana Tikao named Arts Foundation Laureate

Seven Arts Foundation Laureates making their mark on Aotearoa New Zealand have just been announced.

The Arts Foundation Laureate Award celebrates and empowers New Zealand's most outstanding practicing artists, whose mahi is having a significant impact in our country.
 
Recognising these artists and their contribution to the arts in Aotearoa, it also gives them the support to go and make great work for the future.
 
Selected by an independent panel of experts during July 2020, seven Arts Foundation Laureates join a one hundred strong collective of artists who have been recognised by The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi over the past 20 years.

Ariana Tikao has won the Jillian Friedlander Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Award. Tikao is a leading player of the taonga puoro, bringing to life ancestral stories through song. Writing waiata that explores themes relating to her Kāi Tahu identity and mana wahine, Tikao often draws upon historical kōrero from her ancestors.

We congratulate Ariana on this prestigious acknowledgement.