Tīpare Marks Matariki with a Deeply Moving Ode ‘Stars Scars’
As Matariki ascends across Aotearoa skies this month, highly respected multi-media artist Tīpare (Ngāti Waiora, Ngāti Maniapoto) has revealed a deeply moving new waiata, Star Scars.
Steeped in unfiltered emotion, Star Scars speaks to intergenerational tuku iho – a foundational concept in te ao Māori encompassing traditions, values, knowledge, and legacy. “It’s about cleansing, forgiveness, loving people with emotional or spiritual scars, being depleted and being refilled again, reincarnation, and that we are star dust as taught by our tupuna,” says Tīpare, who was first inspired to write the kupu in the form of two poems, following a conversation she’d had with a person who’d spent a lot of time in prison.
Eventually the two poems became one waiata set to the haunting melody that you hear today. Tīpare’s raw and vulnerable vocals came one night when she felt “broken and tired” and was missing the people she loved. “It was kind of a blur. I just remember who I was signing to and a sense of desperation to reach them with the purest part of me,” she says.
The final touches to Star Scars didn’t come to Tīpare until she sought space and solace in her haukāinga. “I packed up my bag and gears and headed home to Mōkau so I could be free. We have the most beautiful crystal-clear star filled nights back home. I was so happy and just set up the mic and did all the harmonies in one go.”
“In my mind I was thinking about the shed harmonies in the King Country where someone just picks up a guitar and everyone sings parts together. My dream I was seeing was others doing this like we used to in Te Kuiti back in the day.”
To highlight the beauty and rawness of Star Scars, and the complexities in which it came together as a song, Tīpare is releasing both the finished song – produced by Andrew Meyer and mastered by Neil Baldock – and the demo version, which she describes as a “completely authentic version of me in all my faults and flaws trying to reach perfection.”
Both equally moving, the waiata deliver a powerful message, which aptly coincides with Matariki – a time when we honour tupuna, connection, reconnection, togetherness, hopes and dreams.
“Star Scars is loving someone in their entirety. The stars represent all they come from, and the scars represent the hurts that heal but leaves marks. It’s all beautiful. How stars are built in space is a series of events that one could consider traumatic. We don’t know, we only see the shining. But it leaves us as humans staring at their beauty.”
Tīpare’s wish for all who listen: “I want people to feel hope and love. Never ending love and hope wrapped in sonic star dust.”
