SHOCKING Stan Walker speaks about being "Too Brown" & "Too Maori" for the Music Industry 

Remember, at the beginning he's talking about Australia (and the Australian music industry). Coming home to New Zealand was the best thing. That word you didn't know was tūrangawaewae. Tūrangawaewae is one of the most well-known and powerful Māori concepts. Literally tūranga (standing place), waewae (feet), it is often translated as ‘a place to stand’. Tūrangawaewae are places where we feel especially empowered and connected. They are our foundation, our place in the world, our home.

having lived in Australia, it doesn’t surprise me that Australian record execs told him he was “too Maori” or “too brown”. This was a country that had a “white Australia” policy for decades, that failed to recognize their own indigenous people in their constitution, and which still has a bad reputation for racism. Poor Stan - it’s an appalling way to be treated

You're Being You... That's what makes you sooo Special and Required... Love you Brother.

Disappointed in Australian Music Industry because as an Aussie, I absolutely love his Maori mixed songs (Maori and English in the songs). His version of Crowded House was made heaps better due to the Maori in it. Love seeing him standing strong representing Maori.

I watched this same interview about a week or so ago, i couldnt believe they told him to be less māori too! I love Stan and everything he represents. He is a staunch māori and it makes me so proud to see where he is and what he is doing now ❤ You should plan a trip back home, back to your roots. It will uplift and empower you. Kia kaha bro and i wish you all the best. Much love from Aotearoa, New Zealand 🇳🇿 ❤

His turangawaewae is his place to stand where the bones of his people lay

I Am the Colour is the product of this treatment....wonderful.song

Dont think all Australians are like that there are bad apples in all barrels . I love Stan even more now, that he has embraced his culture and I believe his work is so much better since he has started to create from his origin spirit . All artists need to be true to themselves if their work is to be inspirational rather than just skilled . Most Australians believe that New Zealanders are their brothers (not just the white ones) . In every music industry, world wide the need to make a quick buck out of an artist ,overrides the development of meaningful progress of the artist . I am not sure I would have been a fan of the Stan who followed that dumb advice but I am definitely a fan of this Stan, the one who follows his heart and his culture even at a time when there are powers working against the upholding and celebration of that culture. Thank you for a great reaction and for the support of a great artist.

Listen TWUR!!! I am so in tune with your responses because we are of the same mindset when it comes down to the Maori people and their culture. I know had my people not been snatched away from our homeland, we would be afforded the opportunity to know exactly who we are! But since I have heard I AM and cried those tears of IDENTIFICATION (for lack of better term) I am so in their corner!!! So down for their struggle! Because it's playing out in this present time! The need and greed of others to irradicate anyone and everyone different than themselves. Trying to make the people assimilate and make their culture disappear. But they can't and they won't. Stan has gone WORLD-WIDE!!! We identify with him and his people. The Maori give life and are life!!! I cannot wait to see Stan Walker in person!!! New Zealand is definitely on the list!!!

As a white Kiwi (Pakeha) I have often wondered how the many new generations of Maori born in Australia must feel growing up without being surrounded by the beautiful Maori culture we all take for granted in NZ. So happy Stan is taking his culture & sharing it with a worldwide audience. He is a Kiwi treasure♥ Thank you for the upload.

Your 'awareness' is the start of your journey home. You travel alone. Not meant to be easy. Ask the right questions, and answers arrive. Whakapapa (genealogy) for you will be difficult. Try and take your Dad to Barbados and ask the bigger questions. Take your time. This can't be rushed. You're so right about connectedness. We are all so alike, but we're kept separated to instill the fear of difference. We're easier to control, and those in power tip the balance in their favour. The world is waking up. You aren't lonely.

@TWUR ..OMG BRO..I really felt what you said.. "I've never been inspired to be anything, other than SAFE.." Living in survival mode for most of my 50yrs has had that same effect on me. I was so occupied dealing with all the low's in life, that I feel I missed out on all the high's. I never knew what my calling was until recently. I realize now that I'm the person that I needed in my life when I was growing up. Now I know why people come to me for help. I'm a healer..

Many of us have forgotten where we actually came from. The people in charge of writing history shown a tendency to cherry pick details and designed it so people would be dependent upon so called modern society. Stan inspired me to reconnect with my own history.

Thank you for your insight, honesty and heart ❤🙏

You should react to Stans song "I am the colour" ...my fave song of 2023. Thanks for this. So true, we all have a rich heritage, our ancestors brought us here, they love us, they want us to find them.

God bless brother. You'll get home :)

Go home, at least touch base, ground yourself. Doing this will empower you to deal with what this world throws at you.

Sooo Appreciate your In-tune spirit... Love your reactions... Love your energy... Please keep it up... Love watching you 😄👍

As a brown person (Melanesian) living in Australia, while most Australians don’t care about colour skin, it’s mostly the industry! I’ve never been told my colour skin was a problem!

Yes go home finding your roots gives you a feeling of belonging, knowing your heritage completes you, my parents always pushed our heritage but I denied my culture I felt lost. Once I embraced it I felt whole....complete...I belonged....it's a good feeling.

🤙🤙🤙 kia ora brother 🤙🤙🤙

Very proud of Stan…..new zealand

Kia ora ehoa, really enjoying you sharing Stan. Kia Kaha ♥

Turangawaewae....standing ground.....where you are from

Ma te wa e hoa (all in good time friend) my mother taught me home will always be home, to learn and navigate the white man's world will be beneficial to help understand. I know why Stan has lit a fire in your core, culture speaks to culture - language speaks to language, and ultimately understanding comes from the respect and humility of one culture to another. People don't respect people, or language, however culture will always respect culture purely because it encompasses everything holistically therefore raising your vibration, awareness and understanding. You will return to native home when you're ready to ❤️ Kia Ora for your reactions and insight.

Check out Stan’s song “I am the color.” He wrote this song after he rejected signing with Sony due to them saying he had to sing everything in English.

💖another heartfelt reaction...... Kia Kaha

This is such a good video ! I cried !

Brother just doing this channel is inspiring. Sharing your journey and your views globally is inspiring. When the time is right you will head off to Barbados and get back to your roots. Thank you for your platform.

I left New Zealand for 15 years and lived & worked in Australia, then, I made the decision to leave Aussie and return home to be with my family here in NZ. I'm super proud of where I come from & I will never leave again, I took for granted what NZ had to offer me so to come home was the best decision of my life! Everyone in Aussie said to me the same thing, why do you want to go back to NZ but I'm sure glad I did. YOU ARE THE MAKER OF YOUR OWN DESTINY BRO, DONT'T EVER FORGET THAT!!

Beautiful reflections. Nau mai ki te ao māori. 🤍

Soo cool your reacting to lots of Stans extra interviews etc. Both worlds can help us bro, But so exciting for you to go home back to your roots, your already doing lots bro!!!!

He's just speaking facts from Aussie now he's home and he's a leader with other Māori tane that are trialling on a Māori tane connnection he's spitting facts were amazing race Māori we are Māori we will be till we die

Thanks!

Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more nounNEW ZEALAND (in Maori culture) a sense of identity and independence associated with having a particular home base. "these acres were his turangawaewae; the only heirloom of consequence his family ever had"

Stan Walker for Prime Minister 💜

Yr cool bro…I appreciate yr appreciation of our culture.. don’t stop searching we have all been gobbled up in the crazy world and divided from each other from home ❤

Awesome interview & your reaction is just filled with such feeling and understanding. Go home to your roots bro ❤

Chur bro, in brief : tūrangawaewae is One's place of standing - it is like Stan said, it's "who I Am"...it's about one's identity and our connection to our maunga, awa, whenua (mountain, river and whenua). Marae is meeting place - it is a special space that reconnects us to our whakapapa (genealogy). Hope this helps, Mauri Ora bro !!

Love your work brother. ❤️

Kao we a born from birth knowing our culture but were do we belong in this world we all belong somewhere and weather it be here or there we find ourselves ❤❤❤

Enjoy your reaction videos of Stan brother. You absolutely get it. Nga mihi nui from Aotearoa ❤

What’s missing is GOD, once you have GOD creator, you will feel complete. Because you have your roots, your last part is our Heavenly Father… Stan also came back to GOD & now his career is bigger than it was 🙏🏽❤️✝️💯💟

"Im INaori I am ntentional" that pairing is partly where he has arrived today, his Gifts n Talents are the other pairing. Lesssgoo Stan 🎉❤ Your Chosen Your Special Your from a Royal Priesthood ❤❤❤

My kids: "Mom, what should I be when I grow up?" Me: "Happy." Look, there actually isn't a rule written anywhere that says you have to pick one thing and be that successfully for the rest of your life. I told my kids they DO have to pick one of three things and go to school for that. Medicine, Culinary, or mechanics. Because even if the apocalypse comes those three things will always be needed, right? And there are many levels to each. You'll never not have something to fall back on and support yourself while you go do whatever it is your passion is or put yourself through school doing whatever you want to do. Don't feel bad about switching what you want to do. you may find you are good at different things at different times of your life and thats cool too. Beyond making sure you can feed and clothe yourself, I made you to adventure. See the world, serve in it, be a good fellow human. Learn languages, embrace cultures and realize that everyone's experience is as valid and valuable as your own. Don't sit and worry if the world finds you useless, make yourself useful. Be a person to the person next to you. Remember that people don't need you to solve their problems or answers most of the time. They just don't want to be alone while they talk themselves through it. Let em talk, hold no judgement. Remember that life is hard enough, you dont get an opinion on what to do about what you aren't going through. Always be finding yourself because there is no price you can put on living with yourself. So, Me: "Be happy."

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He needs to enter the Eurovision song contest. He will win hands down!

I love what stan said about wearing his pounamu 10:15, thats exactly how i feel, i dont care about expensive jewelery and watches and rings. Our pounamu will always be priceless❤🎉🎉

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You on the path

Love your reactions bro and your Stan reviews. You should do He Kakana Ahau. A song all about what your talking about lol love your mahi (work) bro

Should do inventing myself great one to follow this interview

Bro! Love your videos!! You should watch "Come Back Home" by Stan. It's an original and it has his wife in it - its another genre Stan has mastered and it's such an uplifting song and music video! Much love ❤

Check out his song inventing myself he wrote that song after coming back home from Australia and how he was treated.

much love my bro, loving your content and journey. Please come to NZ for a visit we welcome you plenty of beds at my house :)

You make laugh😂..one luv Brother.

Love your love of Stan 😊 please do matemateāone, he kakano ahau or the haka video by beats by dre 🎉

Start from where your village is, where your grandparents, great grandparent are from. Talk to elders from home, listen to their stories and your history. Start a go fund me page, and hopefully we get to see your journey documented. Much blessings to you brother. 👊🏽

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That does not surprise me about Australia. I hate to say that but they are extremely racist there and you should check out how they treat Indigenous Australians. It is awful. Absolutely love Stan Walker and RU-vid made a great choice when they recommend his music to me one day. I needed his song to help heal my soul with all the pain and strife going on. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, his song brings me back to my center and keeps me focused on the goal of building a better world for everyone ❤️

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Bro, you need to go home ❤ Your whakapapa (heritage) is waiting for you ❤ You have found Stan because your Wairua (spirit) needed you to see this. To see and feel Stan's connection to his roots. That which your spirit is yearning for ❤ It is time brother. Arohanui (Big Love!)

If you get a chance listen to his song... " New Takeover" an older song of his.

He won Australia idol 🤔 Guy Sebastian produced his album, I doubt he was "too brown" this is hard to believe.

Every indigenous people is going throught this get back to your roots empowers you to walk through the world with your head up, the values an morals each culture has is empowering an works with nature not against it it get deep

Your Turangawaiwai is your belonging place

Please react to Stan Walker - New Light 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Please before you watch Stans "I am the colour" please watch his explanation video first. Its absolutely beautiful and speaks alot to what hes been through in rhe industry. Also maori words tend to have multiple meanings including the word Maori. Here are but some of their meanings. Maori means native or better translated as natural. For example wai maori means natural water. Maori also means beautiful. Tangata maori means indigenous people/native people/beautiful people. We are all maori including you brother. Also on another note i heard you mention wairua in another video. Wai means water Rua is two So its been translated into spirit. however, it clearly depicts what makes up a spirit. Two waters maybe called ying and yang, the good and bad or the two opposite entities we usually depict as sitting on each shoulder Our task is to keep our wairua balanced. Bless you ✨️

Wairua

Have you heard his song I am the colour? Not to be mistaken for I am

Aww so close brother, but not quite. The message is not to focus on similarities to others but to celebrate your differences… because those things make you who you are. Stan wasn’t permitted by music executives to be different in his Māori-ness because they didn’t believe it would/could sell. Him saying he is unapologetically Māori is him claiming his differences with pride.

Turangawaewae means where your from

he won the Australian Idol 2009 and his first album went double platinum in Australia and it was produced by guy Sabastion, if he is expecting me to believe Guy Sabastion told him he was to brown tell him he is dreaming, it is so easy to ask Guy if that went down, i mean Guy is also brown, so i am calling bullshit on that remark, i dont watch the singing shows but i have been watching Stans recent work and i am loving his convictions and sense of purpose, he is a proud staunch defender of his culture, language and country which he has my upmost respect for, tell him to name names, he wont have one.

Not in aoteroa he wasnt..just in oz

Bra.. there's a saying every little Maori boy, and girl got told..and I'm going to say it to you.."get ur little ass home now!😊

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PVatcFLFAXo.htmlsi=IseGLb266s6EhIy1 ....this link is to a radio interview with Stan 3 years ago... It's titled Stan Walker opens up about his story. Extremely open and honest in the way Stan always is... It gives you another layer to appreciate the Phenomenon which is Stan. It is quite long so even if you don't react to it, please watch it. I know you will appreciate these few moments captured in time🥰

heard about it, YESS!! SO not at ALL cool or ok!

That’s racist that’s Australia for ya

Oh Stan sad to here you using the I'm too Brown scenario ! I love your music but this is not true ! NZ isn't a racist country

I love Stan but I have to say the too brown narrative is way too overused these days. Please I hope I don't see you holding g a Palestinian flag next

Go home whats stopping you?

On point bro... Turangawaewae = Footstool to your roots