Young musician fuses bluegrass country and Vagahau Niue to preserve heritage

A young musician is honouring her family and Niuean culture while striving to make the language more accessible through an upcoming compilation supported by the Moana Reo Media Fund.

Anna Tukuitoga from Paeroa, with proud Niuean and Fijian roots, is passionate about bluegrass country music.

The niece of academic and Pacific health expert Sir Collin Tukuitonga KNZM, Anna studies commercial music majoring in music practice at Massey University in Wellington.

She says music has been a vital outlet for her, particularly in self-expression and storytelling.

“It's definitely a coping mechanism for me. It's a way to express who I am. And within the genre that I do, it's a storytelling genre, so I like to tell my story,” she says.

Tukuitoga previously served as a Youth MP for Scott Simpson in Youth Parliament 2022. She is a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Pacific Youth Awards and a youth ambassador for the New Zealand delegation to the Festival of the Pacific in 2024.

Tukuitoga has made it her mission to represent her culture, community, and passion for music and Pacific people.

As a professional banjo player, Tukuitoga was inspired by watching a Sāmoan girl perform at a competition hosted by the New Zealand Country Music Association.

“I was mesmerised by her piece and I wanted to learn it. From that day on, I wanted to learn. So I've been playing since 2017,” she says.

Listen to Anna Tukuitoga's full interview below.

Tukuitoga uses her talent and advocacy to highlight the importance of family and Vagahau Niue through a project supported by the Moana Reo Media Fund.

The project intertwines Niue culture with her love for country music and key parts of her identity.

Tukuitoga hopes her presence in the country music scene will instill confidence in Pasifika people to explore the country music genre.

“I feel I should inspire more Pasifika people to come into the country music genre and get amongst the culture within country music.

“Competing in a lot of competitions and being in environments where it's predominantly Palangi people, I have felt the need to show who I am and present myself in that way, because I am a very proud Tangata Niue and Fijian,” she says.

Anna Tukuitoga is steadfast in honouring Niuean culture through bluegrass country music. Photo/Anna T Music Facebook

Tukuitoga is working alongside her uncle, Malcolm Lakatani, to record her Moana Reo project, which is expected to be released by March 2026.

Tukuitoga says the project addresses the importance of music in preserving the knowledge of her grandmother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2015 and experienced significant decline during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We saw her get even worse during COVID because we were all locked down and couldn't go anywhere. We were just stuck in our houses.

“Music played a big part for all of us in the household. That's what's really inspired this piece for the project, because [those were] the prime times that we had left before she lost all of the knowledge that she had,” she says.

Before her diagnosis, Tukuitoga’s grandmother was a high school and special needs teacher in Niue. She has passed her passion for music and knowledge of Vagahau Niue onto Tukuitoga, who hopes to continue sharing these values with future generations.

Anna Tukuitoga with her grandmother who she is honouring with her ongoing project aimed at preserving Vagahau Niue in Aotearoa. Photo/supplied

“[She lost] all of that knowledge, but [it] was passed on to me and no one else in our family, because she was with us for the majority of my life. It just feels right for me to hand that on to future generations,” she says.

The core focus of her project is to revitalise Vagahau Niue, a language that UNESCO has classified as definitely endangered.

“Vagahau Niue is an endangered language. And with this project I am working on, it is a way to teach younger people in Aotearoa how to speak our language,” she says.

The Moana Reo Media Fund supports projects that celebrate and preserve Pacific languages and cultures in Aotearoa.