The award winning, husband and wife duo 'Aro' is made up of Charles (Te Rarawa, Ngaapuhi, Ngaati Te Ata Waiohua, Ngaati Mutunga) and Emily Looker, who share a passion for the power of language and music to tell stories celebrating our cultural identity.
Blending Emily's honey-voiced jazz with Charles' full throated percussive sound with shades of haka, Aro's performance adds up to a warmth of experience, wholly original, anchored in Aotearoa that leave all who are present with the feeling of having been let in on a special secret.
The pair have become well known for their multi-genre offering of music & storytelling, exploring the ideas of kaitiakitanga and manaakitanga - looking after ourselves, each other, and our environment. Finalists for several NZ music awards, most recently longlist finalists APRA Silver Scrolls 2024, finalists for 3 awards at the Waiata Māori Music Awards (2024) - winning Best Pop Album, as well as finalists at the Waiata Māori Music awards (2022), Maioha Award at the Silver Scrolls (2019) & twice for Best Children’s Song award (2019 & 2023).
“The peer-voted APRA Maioha Award-Tohu Maioha was presented to Charles Looker and Emily Looker for the song Puna Ora which they performed as Aro.
Aro has been creating bilingual waiata since forming in 2017, known for their rich harmonies and heartfelt storytelling inspired by whānau, whenua, and te ao Māori.”
