Maree Alicia Hiria Sheehan (born 1969) is a New Zealand sonic artist,

sound designer In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and lecturer, and is a research fellow in the Te Manawahoukura Research Centre at

Te Wānanga o Aotearoa Te Wānanga o Aotearoa is a Māori people, Māori university and tertiary education provider with over 80 campuses throughout New Zealand. The indigenous-led organisation works towards "whānau transformation through education" including the r ...

. In 2024 the

Royal Society Te Apārangi The Royal Society Te Apārangi (in full, Royal Society of New Zealand) is a not-for-profit body in New Zealand providing funding and policy advice in the fields of sciences and the humanities. These fundings (i.e., Marsden grants and research fe ...

awarded Sheehan the Te Koponui Māori Research Award for her creation of audio portraits of Māori women.

Early life and education

Sheehan was born in

Leeston Leeston (Māori language, Māori: ''Karumata'') is a town on the Canterbury Plains in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located 30 kilometres southwest of Christchurch, between the shore of Lake Ellesmere / Te Waihora and the mouth of the Ra ...

and grew up in Canterbury, Pōrangahau in the Hawke's Bay, and

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

. She has affiliations to Ngāti Maniapoto-Waikato,

Ngāti Tūwharetoa Ngāti Tūwharetoa is an iwi descended from Ngātoro-i-rangi, the priest who navigated the Arawa canoe to New Zealand. The Tūwharetoa region extends from Te Awa o te Atua ( Tarawera River) at Matatā across the central plateau of the North ...

Ngāti Raukawa Ngāti Raukawa is a Māori iwi (tribe) with traditional bases in the Waikato, Taupō and Manawatū/ Horowhenua regions of New Zealand. In 2006, 29,418 Māori registered their affiliation with Ngāti Raukawa. History Early history Ngāti ...

and Ngāti Tahu-Ngāti Whaoa, and Irish ancestry through her father. Sheehan attended the Polynesian Performing Arts Centre in Christchurch.

Career

Sheehan released several singles in the 1990s as a singer-songwriter, including three which reached the top twenty. Her music featured in the film '' Once Were Warriors'', and in the television series ''

Shortland Street ''Shortland Street'' is a New Zealand Prime time, prime-time soap opera centring on the fictitious Shortland Street Hospital. The show was first broadcast on TVNZ 2 on 25 May 1992 and is New Zealand's longest-running drama and soap opera, be ...

''; ''Home, Land and Sea''; and ''Takatapui.'' In 1993 Sheehan was nominated for most promising vocalist at the

New Zealand Music Awards The Aotearoa Music Awards (previously called the New Zealand Music Awards), conferred annually by Recorded Music NZ, honour outstanding artistic and technical achievements in the recording industry. The awards are among the most significant that ...

, and in 1996 her album ''Past to Present'' was nominated for Best Mana Māori Album. She released an album ''Chasing the Light'' in 2013. Sheehan completed a master's degree and a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

Auckland University of Technology Auckland University of Technology ( AUT; ) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT is New Zealand's third largest university i ...

. Her doctoral research was titled ''The Sound of Identity Interpreting the Multi-dimensionality of Wāhine Māori Through Audio Portraiture.'' Sheehan has worked at

Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) is New Zealand's Māori Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE). It was established in 2002 and is hosted by the University of Auckland with 21 research partners and is funded, like other CoRE's, by the Tertiary E ...

research centre, and was head of the postgraduate programme at Auckland University of Technology's School of Art and Design. Sheehan is a research fellow at Te Manawahoukura Research Centre at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. Sheehan's solo exhibition ''Ōtairongo'' at Artspace Aotearoa in 2020 presented audio portraits of three Māori women,

Moana Maniapoto Moana Maree Maniapoto (born 22 June 1961) is a New Zealand singer, songwriter and documentary maker. Widely considered one of New Zealand's most successful indigenous acts, her music is described as a fusion of traditional Māori haka, chants a ...

, Te Rita Papesch and

Ramon Te Wake Ramon Te Wake (born 25 March 1976) is a New Zealand trans woman documentarian, singer-songwriter and television presenter. Her first presenting job was for Māori Television, where she was one of three people fronting '' Takatāpui'', which is Maor ...

Honours and awards

In 2021, Sheehan was awarded the Professional Development Award for Screen Composition from the Australian Performing Rights Association and in 2022 the APRA Art Music Fund award for composition. She received the MAITAI Whangai Award for mentoring band Nesian Mystik. In 2024 the Royal Society Te Apārangi awarded Sheehan the Te Koponui Maori Research Award "for her innovative scholarship, focused on audio portraiture and sonic practices that has elevated the voices and identities of wāhine Māori".

References

External links

Maree Sheehan's YouTube channel

Artist profile of Maree Sheehan
at Auckland Art Gallery {{DEFAULTSORT:Sheehan, Maree New Zealand academics New Zealand women academics Academic staff of the Auckland University of Technology Auckland University of Technology alumni New Zealand singer-songwriters New Zealand composers Sound designers Sound artists 1969 births Living people People from Leeston Ngāti Maniapoto people Ngāti Tūwharetoa people Ngāti Raukawa people Ngāti Tahu people