Theia wins big at the Auckland University Blues Awards

Celebrated NZ singer and songwriter Theia was recognised at the University of Auckland’s annual Blues Awards on Friday night with the award for Arts and Culture and the prestigious Major Māori Award.

Theia – AKA Em-Haley Kūkūtai Walker (Waikato – Ngaati Tiipaa, Ngaati Kaiaua) – is doing her Masters in Indigenous Studies at Auckland University and received the Major Māori Award for her musician excellence and advocacy for Māori and Indigenous rights, which included delivering interventions at the United Nations in New York earlier this year.

The awards topped off a big week for the artist, who touched back down in Aotearoa last weekend after touring Canada, to news that she had won the Waiata Māori Music Award for ‘Best Māori Songwriter’. It was also revealed last week that her debut album Girl, In A Savage World is up for consideration in the 2027 Grammy Awards® for Best Alternative Music Album.

This week Theia is a featured speaker at the Tāmaki Makaurau Māori Women’s Welfare League National Conference, which is this year celebrating 75 years of Mana Wahine.

Theia is a fierce proponent for Māori rights, and her music and advocacy has been recognised on the global stage – most recently her powerful address at the United Nations’ 25th Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.

Her debut album Girl, In A Savage World has received critical acclaim around the world. The album is praised for the ease in which it glides between reo Māori and reo Pākeha, while cleverly weaving together traditional instrumentation (pūtatara, kōauau, porotiti) and composition (haka, mōteatea, kaioraora) with contemporary soundscapes to create a sound unique to Theia.

Rolling Stone Australia listed the album as #3 in their Top 50 New Zealand albums of 2025. Rolling Stone also recently listed Theia in their ‘Future of Music’ series, which honours boundary-pushing artists around the globe.