{"id":318720,"date":"2026-03-08T05:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T05:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/318720\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T05:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T05:30:08","slug":"herbs-frontman-dilworth-karaka-mourned-by-whanau-and-new-zealand-music-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/318720\/","title":{"rendered":"Herbs frontman Dilworth Karaka mourned by wh\u0101nau and New Zealand music community"},"content":{"rendered":"

The band are perhaps best known for appearing on the Dave Dobbyn track Slice of Heaven, as well as their hits Listen, Long Ago and See What Love Can Do, a collaboration with fellow Pacific artist Annie Crummer.<\/p>\n

Born in 1950 and raised in Auckland, Karaka was widely regarded as the group\u2019s leader, with Fonoti describing him as the \u201cface of Herbs\u201d in their 2019 documentary Herbs: Songs of Freedom.<\/p>\n

\"HerbsHerbs in Mascot Studios, early 1980s (from left): Dilworth Karaka, Spencer Fusimalohi, Fred Faleauto, Phil Toms and Toni Fonoti.<\/p>\n

\u201cDilworth grew the band more while always maintaining the core message of voicing social injustice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA freedom fighter for Bastion Point, and in tune with the issues of the Pacific.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stood strong together as brothers, as M\u0101ori and Pacific, in a time when M\u0101ori and Pacific were not united.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HerbsHerbs (from left): Jack Allen, Dilworth Karaka, Mori Watene, Spenz Fusimalohi and Fred Faleauto.<\/p>\n

Herbs was inducted into the New Zealand Hall of Fame at the 2012 Apra Silver Scroll Awards.<\/p>\n

The group also received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 Pacific Music Awards.<\/p>\n

A gifted guitarist and vocalist, Karaka remained with the group through several personnel changes over the decades, becoming a devoted and influential mentor to other M\u0101ori and Pasifika musicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were the voice for a lot of people that just weren\u2019t getting heard,\u201d Karaka said while reflecting on Herbs\u2019 political activism.<\/p>\n

\"DilworthDilworth Karaka (left) and Leyton Greening of Herbs in 2012. Photo \/ Natalie Slade<\/p>\n

Audioculture, a digital library documenting Aotearoa\u2019s music history, wrote: \u201c[Karaka] helmed the Herbs waka while it created the Pacific reggae that condemned the Crown\u2019s treatment of M\u0101ori land rights protesters and so-called Pacific Island overstayers, organised religion, French nuclear testing and Japanese drift-net fishing in the Pacific, even South Africa\u2019s apartheid system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe documentary Herbs: Songs of Freedom was released in 2019.<\/p>\n

Karaka\u2019s wh\u0101nau said they would gather at \u014cr\u0101kei Marae tomorrow morning, where they will be met by Ng\u0101ti Wh\u0101tua.<\/p>\n

After spending one night there, his body will be taken to Whaatapaka Marae in Karaka, where he will lie for two night before his burial.<\/p>\n

The wh\u0101nau said further details about his final services would be shared as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

\"HerbsHerbs (from left): Dilworth Karaka, Charlie Tumahai, Tom Nepia, Fred Faleauto, Willie Hone, Tama Lundon and Morri Watene in 1986. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The band are perhaps best known for appearing on the Dave Dobbyn track Slice of Heaven, as well…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[95,26652,3595,1259,6179,121415,156,65792,209,58373,91125,1329,147656,157,65041,117,111,139,69,14730,57390,63954,30859,80],"class_list":["post-318720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-and","tag-aotearoas","tag-by","tag-community","tag-died","tag-dilworth","tag-entertainment","tag-frontman","tag-group","tag-herbs","tag-karaka","tag-member","tag-mourned","tag-music","tag-musician","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-premier","tag-prolific","tag-reggae","tag-whnau","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}