Dame Kiri Te Kanawa with Prince Charles, Kiri has had an illustrious career. Although Kiri was adopted as an infant by her Maori father, Thomas Te Kanawa, and his wife Nell, “Maoridom” means a lot to the singer. “It’s my heritage. They weren’t allowed to speak Maori – in fact, they were absolutely forbidden.
What is the meaning of the opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa Maori first name?
Operatic soprano Tom Te Kanawa, a Maori—a people of Polynesian descent—ran a truck contracting business. Little did the Te Kanawas know when they named their daughter Kiri, the Maori word for bell, that someday commentators would be remarking on their daughter’s bell-like voice.
What ethnicity is Kiri Te Kanawa?
She was born on March 6, 1944, in Gisborn, NZ. Here, the birth child of a native Maori man and a woman of European extraction was adopted at five weeks of age by a local couple, Tom and Nell Te Kanawa, he also a Maori and she with family ties to the British Isles.
