LEGEND
Tama Renata
From Te-Whānau-a-Ruataupare in Tokomaru Bay, Tama Renata was raised on music. His grandmother played thirteen instruments and taught him from a young age. By the time he was four years old, he was confidently playing guitar.
As a child he played gigs across the motu, and spent the next five decades becoming one of the most extraordinary musicians New Zealand has ever produced. Described by his peers as a musician’s musician and the fastest guitarist in the world — Tama's speed and dexterity on the fretboard were unlike anything audiences had ever seen. "You don't come across genius much in any era," said legendary drummer Frank Gibson Jr, who played alongside him. His career spanned over fifty years across every dimension of music.
As a performer, session guitarist, studio engineer, composer, producer, mentor, and frontman, Tama worked with the finest musicians Aotearoa has ever produced — Billy T James, Prince Tui Teka, Howard Morrison, Graham Brazier, Sonny Day, and many more. He joined iconic Māori reggae band Herbs and was inducted with them into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2012. He formed the celebrated Tuhi Tama Band with fellow guitarist Tuhi Timoti, and led his own Tama Band across the clubs and venues of Auckland for decades.
His guitar is the sound that opens Once Were Warriors — one of the most viscerally powerful sequences in New Zealand cinema. That performance, and the ballad he contributed to the film, are among the most recognised pieces of New Zealand music ever recorded.
His reputation reached well beyond these shores. Santana came looking for him. George Benson awarded him a signature Ibanez guitar in recognition of his playing. David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Jeff Beck, and the Grateful Dead all sought him out. He turned down the world to stay home.
Tama Renata died in November 2018. Through his extraordinary contributions to music, he stands among the great icons of Aotearoa — woven permanently into the fabric of this country's musical landscape. He is a Taonga.
Phoenix Renata
Phoenix Renata is an Auckland-based entrepreneur, award-winning creative director, and the daughter of Tama Renata.
She has spent over twenty years building brands, telling stories, and leading creative work across beauty, fashion, and media — founding Phoenix Cosmetics at twenty-one, growing it to twelve stores across New Zealand and Australia, and establishing herself as one of the country's most recognised voices in beauty and content creation.
In 2020, Phoenix turned her full attention to her father's legacy. Over the seven years since, she has conducted and recorded interviews with over 200 musicians, producers, and cultural figures who knew and played alongside Tama. She has written more than 100,000 words across 56 draft chapters, digitised and restored rare archival footage, and built a social platform for Tama's work that has drawn audiences of over 250,000 views per post.
This project — part biography, part archive, part love letter — is the most significant work of her life.
"Renata is one of the most driven business people I've met in this job." — Nick Smith, NZ Herald Business
