Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua — Two Worlds

Director: Ursula Grace Williams

2025

3 November 2025

See

New Zealander and Māori man Marlon Williams is a popular musician who describes his genre as “Country music… from New Zealand” to the woman sitting next to him on a London double decker bus when asked who he is and why he’s beiung filmed. This doco follows him on the culmination of a four year journey of recording his latest album entirely in Te Reo Māori. 

Think

Marlon Williams has been my favourite musician since I heard him duet with fellow Kiwi musician and ex girlfriend Aldous Harding Hannah, who in turn has a version of Gerry Rafferty’s Right Down the Line which is the greatest cover of all time. In my opinion. She and Marlon sun Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore together. Now he duets with another notable local Lorde having toured together. Net I noticed him as the Roy Orbison tribute singer in Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born. 

Feel

Māori is such a beautiful culture that all New Zealanders are proud of, despite a conservative backlash of dual naming and mother tongue language learning. If Aussies could come to appreciate Aboriginal Indigenous heritage as something precious to all Australians we could come a long way. It’s a beautiful thing to hear Marlon regenerate the culture by creating new music that way, and it’s so relaxing to hear music in languages you don’t understand and just let it wash over you rather than analyse the lyrics. Huri Te Whenua is my favourite, and as usual the live versions are even better than the studio recordings,