Hareruia Ruia Aperahama is a Maori composer and recording artist hailing from New Zealand. Ruia's brand of music is a reggae/world crossover sung in a Maori/English bilingual mix (Ruia is a native speaker of the Maori language). Ruia is adept on a variety of musical instruments - saxophone, keyboard and guitar, as well as a superb and passionate vocalist. A gifted singer/songwriter comfortable in traditional or contemporary musical environments, Ruia is one of the few composers to emerge from New Zealand with such multi-dimensional musical gifts.

Ruia is the leading instigator of the Prophecy music project, showcased at WOMADelaide, WOMAD Aotearoa, 2000 Olympic Festival of the Dreaming in Sydney, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival and represented in Europe in 2003 at the Cultural Olympiad in Greece.

Ruia and twin brother Ranea released the album Whare Maori in late 2000, which was nominated as a finalist in the New Zealand Music Industry's Tui Awards. A second album, Waiata of Bob Marley Volume 1, released in 2001, again had the Aperahama brothers sharing vocal duties, covering a selection of Bob Marley's songs sung completely in Maori. This won them the coveted Tui award for Best Maori Language album. Ruia also recorded a follow up Volume 2 in that series released in 2002. Ruia has been given honorary status of the Toi Iho cultural quality assurance mark by Government Arts Agency Creative New Zealand/Te Waka Toi.

Discography:

Hawaiki (Tangata, 2006)