PUBLICITY RELEASE
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 27 2009

Australian Idol Winner Headlines Maori Sports Awards

Australian Idol winner Stan Walker will return to New Zealand for the first time since his success to perform at the prestigious 2009 MAORI SPORTS AWARDS screening on Maori Television on Sunday December 6 at 9.00 PM.

The 19-year-old soulful Maori singer - born in Melbourne, raised in New Zealand and living in Queensland - will perform at the black-tie ceremony at the TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre in Manukau on Saturday December 5.

As well as this year’s Australian Idol, the entertainment line-up will include Whakatane singer-songwriter Maisey Rika; Jo Hopkins aka ‘Chickey’ from the Patea Maori Club; Roland Williams who is the 2009 winner of Maori Television’s karaoke competition, Homai Te Pakipaki; world champion hip hop dance crew ReQuest; and reggae band Box Juice.

Walker, who won a Sony Music recording contract, AUS $200,000 artist development fund and a car, will be accompanied on the trip by his mother, April, and his brother, Michael Anderson, who will back him up on guitar.

Dick Garratt, the executive director of Te Tohu Taakaro o Aotearoa Charitable Trust which hosts the annual awards ceremony, says the world-class entertainment complements the world-class field of finalists which includes sports stars such as Benji Marshall and Temepara George.

The supreme winners of the Albie Pryor Memorial Maori Sportsperson of the Year for the past two years - axeman Jason Wynyard and rower Storm Uru - head up another impressive list of nine Maori World Champion awardees for 2009.

The ceremony will also honour the late Margaret Te Kahurangi (Meg) Matangi MBE with a posthumous induction to the Maori Sports Hall of Fame. Matangi was captain of the first ever New Zealand women's basketball team (now known as netball) in 1938.

“Te Tohu Taakaro o Aotearoa was founded by the late Albie Pryor who had a vision of promoting and encouraging Maori athletes in the pursuit of excellence in their chosen sports,” Dick Garratt says.

“Stan Walker’s amazing success in Australia is an inspiration to all New Zealanders and I am sure Albie would be proud to see this calibre of entertainment take to the stage at this year’s event.”

The home of Maori sport, Maori Television will screen a two-hour special, 2009 MAORI SPORTS AWARDS, on Sunday December 6 at 9.00 PM.

Ends