Rei (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Pākehā) has spent the last few years moving between Aotearoa, Australia and Canada, making music, building friendships and discovering just how much Indigenous artists have in common, no matter where they come from.
His new single Native Worldwide captures that feeling.
The track is the first release from his upcoming Native Links collaboration album and brings together artists from three countries in a song that is equal parts celebration and statement. It’s uplifting, bold and made to move people, but underneath the beat is something deeper – a reflection on shared histories and the bonds that can form through them.
The idea first came together in Vancouver during a writing session with Canadian artist TALON, who is Cree. The pair had met earlier that year in Melbourne and kept crossing paths at Indigenous events around the world.
“We were buzzing out at how international we were,” Rei says. “It felt crazy that we kept running into each other in different countries through Indigenous spaces. That’s where the idea for the song came from.”
Those conversations eventually became Native Worldwide, a song that draws inspiration from Pow Wow Step, the Indigenous Canadian electronic genre that blends traditional Pow Wow vocals with modern production.
Rei wanted to acknowledge that sound while bringing pieces of his own world into the music too.
Pow Wow vocal samples sit alongside the call of the Māori pukaea and the deep drone of the didgeridoo, creating a track shaped by Indigenous traditions from three different nations.
It also felt important to include an artist from Australia.
While in Sydney recently, Rei performed at the EP release party of First Nations artist Akala Newman, who he had worked with previously. Getting her involved in Native Worldwide felt like an obvious next step.
“I knew she’d kill a verse on the track,” he says, laughing. “And she absolutely did. It’s probably the dopest verse on the song.”
For Rei, collaborations like this have become an important part of his creative journey.
Over the years he has built a reputation for weaving te reo Māori, kapa haka and taonga pūoro through hip hop, pop, R&B and electronic music. More than 15 million Spotify streams, seven Waiata Māori Music Awards and multiple Aotearoa Music Award nominations have followed.
His 2025 album Moisturise and Decolonise debuted at number four on the Aotearoa Albums Chart, while recent single Ancestor NRG with Vancouver producer Handsome Tiger has gained strong support across Canada, including regular play on SiriusXM and a place on the Indigenous Music Countdown.
This August he’ll head back to Canada for a six-date tour across Ontario and Quebec, continuing relationships that have grown naturally through music and community.
And that’s probably what sits at the centre of Native Worldwide.
Not the streams or the milestones.
Just the idea that Indigenous artists from different corners of the world can find each other, share stories and create something that feels familiar to all of them.