Teremoana Rapley, photographed by Villiamu Urale. Tranquility, from the series UI, 2022.
Te Whare Hēra are delighted to welcome Black Moana Sovereign Storyteller, Matriarchitect Teremoana Rapley MNZM.
An interdimensional multidisciplinary creative Teremoana has worked behind the scenes supporting many artists as well as have her vocals feature on 30+ released tracks. Having never released an album, her time with us will be spent recording her debut album, a trilogy of 28 songs written over the span of her musical career. Her songwriting is a mixture of time crafted thoughts and deep ruminations about her life journey from a young maiden to a mother, and now as a Matriarch. We are excited to have her spend time with us, developing and sharing her first solo project with the world.
About Teremoana Rapley
A stalwart of the Aotearoa music industry for almost four decades, Teremoana was 14 years old when she began her professional career in music. A self taught musician and studio engineer, by 18 she was running her own home studio delivering commercial music for both radio and television, and won Most Promising Female Vocalist at 19.
By 20, she moved into television and developed her skills in presenting, directing, editing, logistics, camera and producing. She spent 25 years working in bilingual programming gaining 3000+ production credits. With a self-help attitude in everything she sets out to do, she has traversed sectors in television, music, and retail. Her wealth of experience enabled the transition to local government policy first in Auckland Council’s Chief Policy OXice then seconded to the city’s cultural economic development agency, Tātaki Auckland Unlimited. Here, now as a strategist she led the writing of a ten year creative economy plan for Tāmaki Makaurau. The plan involved cross-council assets and units, community groups, industry, central government policy, tertiary institutions and creatives.
In November 2022 she was invited by the USA-Canada based Music Policy Forum to speak at Georgetown University, D.C on how performance and policy inform each other. In 2024 under her indigenous intelligence company The Hefty Agency, she completed a artist-led research project in partnership with Manutū Taonga focusing on the systems transformation of the ecosystem for our local musicians. While raising her four suns, working in a range of roles she also wrote and recorded over 200 tracks in her home studio. Her residency will be spent recording her long awaited debut work in the form of three albums: Daughter of a Housegirl, Cleaning House and Daily Incantations.
Project Overview
This is the first time Teremoana has taken the time to focus solely on music, or more aptly storytelling in over 20 years. With no specific set design to the three bodies of work, she plays with ideas as she feels them, uncovering potential collaborations as the residency develops. Ideas on the table include an acoustic guitar version and a choral interpretation of some of the tracks to date. She comfortably leans in to the unknown for the purpose of trusting how her body feels, and allowing that to lead her creative flow.