> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emptyspaces.co.nz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # HINE on reclaiming te reo, whakapapa and finding her heart-song - URL: https://www.emptyspaces.co.nz/hine-on-reclaiming-te-reo-whakapapa-and-finding-her-heart-song/ - Published: 2026-09-01T20:35:44.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-01T20:35:43.000Z - Author: Nick Raven - Tags: Interview For GiGi Crayford (aka HINE), music is a way to connect and find belonging. Her recent EP, *KA MUA KA MURI*, was created over a three-year journey reconnecting with te reo Māori. Raised in a creative whānau with strong jazz lineage, HINE grew up seeing artistic expression as a natural part of life. We caught up with HINE to talk about the EP, creativity, whānau and finding her own voice in amongst it all. ### Your EP recently entered the New Zealand album charts. What does this recognition mean for you? The recognition feels good and affirming that what we have created is something special that people want to support and connect with. There are also mixed emotions under there as I know so many artists who have such incredible music that aren’t being recognised in the same way. I’ve been privileged to have tuakana and mentors that have been able to teach me some of the hard work, backend admin, organization and bureaucratic type of stuff that actually enables any music to be able to even be registered by things like those charts. If I hadn't had the tautoko of tuakana who had already learned those lessons and weren’t generous enough to share what they had learned with me then I wouldn’t be here receiving this. Everything is about relationships and the most fulfilling aspect personally is the ongoing connection with my whānau, friends and mentors who inspire me everyday… Yet, I am also over the moon to have the opportunity to have the KA MUA KA MURI EP be on the Aotearoa Official Charts among so many other amazing artists. It's a joy and gift and when I got the news from my tuakana via text we were on the ferry on our way to Ōhinehou for our gig at the Lyttelton Coffee Company I genuinely squealed out loud with delight. ### I get the sense that there is great depth and consideration within the creation process for your work. Tell us about some of the inspirations behind the EP… Art creates us as we create it and I have been completely changed and reborn throughout the undertaking of the HINE project. It has been the fruit of so many collaborations, co-creations and an act of surrendering to how life wants to evolve me. This project is simply the fruit and leaves on the tree that you can see above all the work of digging into our roots, into my family ancestry and into humbling myself to reclaim an ancestral language and the way that completely transforms us. Our language creates the lens in which we interact and relate with the world and this EP spans the process of moving from english being my only framework, program perhaps and window of my mind and being into the world; to being able to see the world with a whole new set of eyes and thus relate with it in a whole new way, one that I feel is deeper, more human and expressive of the wholeness of life. Indigenous languages do that more naturally than English, they can encompass and hold more of the richness of the interrelatedness of life. English is one that is noun-centric, a language that is focussed on people, places and things, rather than Te Reo Māori which is all about interconnectivity between all aspects of nature. I feel this innately embodies more of our whole selves as multidimensional beings in the physical but also spiritual world. This has been a massively humbling and enriching process that has taught me so much. I still love English, I'm a writer and enjoy this language and my ability to express myself and create with it but this EP definitely is all about the depth of re-membering our places within nature and Te Reo Māori taught me that in a way my first language never could. ### You grew up in a creative family surrounded by expression. How did these early experiences shape your relationship with music? I always saw music making/making art as natural as breathing so it was normalised for me that the creative path and artistic expression is possible, even necessary. I feel that has been a gift and privilege as the value of music and art has always been shown and embodied in front and around me in my whānau and community. Allowing me to see its a possible path for me and with networks and relationships of support that stretch across generations and disciplines from music to film making, painting, sculpture and clothes making, you’ll find all of these and more in my family and it's wonderful to be around such creative beings. I keep trying to continue that path for the next generation, showing how natural being creative and nurturing the creative expression of my younger whānau members. On some of our shows on the EP Release tour we had my brother Miles’ (who plays incredible organ, piano and bass on the EP) daughter come up on stage and play with us. That meant there were 3 generations of Crayfords on the stage playing together and my heart was so full seeing how brave it was for her to get up at 10 years old and perform her authentic voice in front of a whole room full of people. Even though I grew up so musically and artistically immersed I was still so afraid to express myself and don’t know if I could have done what she’s done. I hope we will just continue to create more and more safe spaces for future artists to blossom and bloom. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5b/32/5b326593-f15d-4829-868d-c5cdac164009/content/images/2026/09/MUMU3988-Large-1.jpeg) ### While writing the EP, you spent three years immersed in understanding te reo. What did this period teach you about yourself? That we all have whakapapa, that if we are going to reduce ourselves to anything then we are a sum of all of our relationships, all of the people who have lived, loved, created and connected before us and they still live in us to this day. I have learned the value of manaaki and authentically relating with beings from the heart outside of the power-over/under dynamics that capitalism, colonisation and patriarchy have established. To connect to people and respect them for who they are, as they are, not what they could do for you or what other people may judge them for their value/role in society. That true fulfilment that comes from tikanga led relationships, being in *right relationship*, one that honours the inherent mauri in everyone as equal yet entirely unique and precious. I have also learnt that we all have whakapapa, we are all from ancestors who made mistakes, hurt people, were fallible and flawed yet also incredibly resilient, brave, innovative, creative and at the end of the day had their hearts in the right place and acted from the times and contexts they were in. We all come from Papatūānuku and have roots back to all the faces of nature no matter whether you are ‘indigenous’ or not by blood. Yet within that, there is tikanga, protocol and ways to protect ourselves and one another, and that isn’t to say that everyone is free for the taking or for everyone. We must uphold the mana of whakapapa, taonga, and relationships. Keeping them respected and cared for. ### Musically, your influences are incredibly varied. Who are your favourite Aotearoa artists right now? I have an eclectic taste in music but have been recently trying to invest all the money people have been buying my EP with on bandcamp back into Aotearoa artists that I love, respect and who inspire me. That has been the Byllie-Jean Filter EP who I only just discovered this month through my friend Jen Cloher’s podcast ‘*Everybody’s just trying to find their way home*’. They had such an amazing kōrero about spirit and music and following tohu and I felt so seen and validated, I was crying and really receiving what they were saying in such a deep place in my wairua. I have also bought Kommi’s music as well as Te Whare Tīwekaweka by Marlon Williams, the Kawakawa album by HUIA and Te Kaahu by Theia. These are just some of my fave Aotearoa Artists, there are SO many awesome artists here though. ### Broadly speaking, what would you like to impart to listeners through your music? I have done a lot of internal wānanga about this question as I do believe art is made to be shared, at least some of art, some also is just for us and that is vital too. I believe the arts' impact on culture, hearts and consciousness is unquantifiable. It has always been that way, from celebrating life to helping people in dark times, inspiring and unifying us in collaboration, sparking protest and necessary change, to processing feelings in unprecedented times and of course story telling and meaning making it all, which is what I think sets us humans apart from all our other friends and relations of the natural world. Personally though, what I have come to is hoping people experience meaning, connection and belonging when they receive my art. I hope something in what they may receive from our music inspires them to ground into their whakapapa, be their authentic selves, share their vulnerability and embody their uniqueness in courageous and radiant ways. There is no-one quite like another and we all have what I call a heart-song, an entirely unique frequency to bring to the world through our existence. [KA MUA KA MURI EP by HINE](https://hine.bandcamp.com/album/ka-mua-ka-muri-ep?ref=emptyspaces.co.nz) ****Releasing new music? Apply to get featured with Empty Spaces.** [Submit your music ](https://www.emptyspaces.co.nz/submissions/)