Please join APRA in congratulating the 2025 APRA Professional Development Award recipients: David Feauai-Afaese (LEAO, Hanisi Garue), Hannah Lubamba (Jujulipps), Seth Haapu, Jesse Austin-Stewart, and Karoline Park-Tamati MNZM (Ladi6). This year's successful applicants represent a diverse mix of genre, experience, and a commitment to advancing their craft.
Each recipient receives $10,000 to contribute towards the next step of their career enhancement, from mentorship and internships, craft development, to attending art residencies and upskilling camps. The award is intended to help artists develop their skills domestically or internationally, where absence of funds has been a road block.
Since the first award was given out in 2005 the Professional Development Awards, which are only available once in a member's career, have now been given to 49 recipients. Previously a bi-annual presentation until 2021, due to the amount and strength of applications and a clear need for support of this nature, it has now become an annual opportunity.
This year's applications were of an incredibly high calibre, making the judging process both challenging and inspiring. The consistently high number of applicants highlights both the impressive talent in Aotearoa and the growing emphasis on career development among local songwriters, signifying the critical role these awards play in supporting our community.
One of the anonymous jury panel members had this message to share with all applicants and recipients:
"Thanks to all who submitted applications this year. Congratulations to this year's recipients - your dedication to advancing your craft is inspiring. No doubt your journeys will inspire other artists to set off on journeys of their own. I can't wait to see what the coming year brings for all of you!"
David Feauai-Afaese (Lalomauga, Mulifanua) is an Auckland-based Samoan artist, screen composer, and music coordinator/director dedicated to uplifting Pacific cultures, people, and stories through music.
As a songwriter and composer, David draws from their upbringing - blending the influences of urban Auckland with the Pacific sounds of their Samoan heritage. This fusion is central to their project LEAO, which merges Samoan language and musical forms with post-punk and jangle-pop. David also composes for screen as part of the duo Hanisi Garue, contributing original Pacific scores to small and big screen projects. Beyond creative work, their passion lies in music rights and licensing, with a focus on increasing access and knowledge for Pacific creative communities.
Whether through experimental Pacific soundscapes or behind-the-scenes advocacy, David’s work challenges conventions and celebrates Pacific identity, history, and modernity.
David will use the APRA Professional Development Award to travel to learn from Pacific instrument educators (such as Alan Akaka) to develop their practice in Hawaiian steel guitar, slack guitar and ukulele - with the ultimate aim of not only uplifting and preserving folk/classical Pacific musical practices in their own work but also developing a future Auckland-based practice where David can share knowledge. Additionally, David will also be continuing their music education both in music theory and Ethnomusicology.
As David puts it themselves: “Beyond developing my personal praxis, I see this funding award as another opportunity for me to contribute meaningfully, through learning, to the invigoration of traditional Pacific music practice and ensuring that our Pacific instruments have a place in the next generation of Pacific compositions. I feel truly honoured and excited to be able to travel and learn kanohi ki te kanohi with Pacific educators, an opportunity that I thought was never possible before. Pacific music has inspired my life, thus I feel it is only right that I dedicate this funding to contributing back to its tapestry and the community from which it sings from.”
Jujulipps is an artist known for her high-energy live shows, sharp lyricism, and captivating stage presence. Releasing her debut EP to immediate acclaim in 2023 (SRN Favourite Single | Te Tōtahi Toa Award; Best Independent Debut at the Taite Music Awards), Jujulipps has been a festival favourite (Rhythm & Vines, Northern Bass, Electric Avenue) and key local opening act (Sudan Archives, Cakes Da Killa) ever since.
Born in South Africa and raised in Aotearoa, Jujulipps draws from her diasporic roots to create a bold, boundary-pushing sound that fuses trap, Afrobeats, punk, and electronica.
Reclaiming a nickname once used to mock her, Jujulipps has turned it into a symbol of power and pride. Her sophomore EP, SUPERSTAR, released last year and shows global ambitions, showcasing her ability to seamlessly merge infectious beats with showstopping charisma.
Jujulipps has been expanding her Swahili knowledge while in New Zealand and plans on using the funds from the APRA Professional Development Award to return to her home country, Burundi, in order to (re)connect to her roots and whakapapa, as well as expand her musical connection to the land, people and culture. She plans to use Swahili in future music and bring her cultural knowledge back to Aotearoa - to further connect to her diaspora and advocate for indigenous language use in music.
Jujulipps will work with local creatives in her home city of Bujumbura, home to a vibrant, thriving community of creatives. Additionally, she will take part in mentorship and workshop opportunities (including sessions with Boh Runga, local producer Icey, and local rapper Mazbou Q).
Jujulipps says: "It's very important to me that there is growth when entering a new chapter and I'm grateful that I now have the tools to adequately push myself through the development stage in a healthy way. Exploring my culture and how it ties hand in hand with my art will be a priority for me. [...]
Connecting to my roots activates my primary instincts which happen to be the only thing present when I am writing music. I believe understanding my culture's music, movements and taste bring me a step closer to my true authenticity as an artist and I'm very excited to explore it all."
Seth Haapu (Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi,, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Porou, Haapu-Huahine) is a musician, producer, and psychologist who has written, produced and performed for and with Stan Walker, Maisey Rika, TEEKS, Rob Ruha, and Sons of Zion while clocking over 50 million streams in the process.
Haapu's current doctoral research, Te Oro Oranga, examines waiata as a healing practice for rangatahi Māori, and his musical output includes film soundtracks (Poi: Hopes & Dreams), and his 2023 album Whai Ora - co-produced with Kody Nielson.
Having supported John Legend and Crowded House on tours as well as having received multiple Waiata Māori Music Awards and the 2021 APRA Maioha Award, the near future will see Haapu new music released that continues their exploration of traditional waiata meeting contemporary soul.
Haapu often references the whakataukī: “Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi engari he toa takitini” (My strength is not mine alone, but it is the strength of many) - and, fittingly, will be utilising the APRA Professional Development Award to participate in multiple wānanga that explore taonga pūoro, atua Māori, pūrākau, and will connect him with other artists, composers, and language revitalisation leaders working across music and culture.
As Seth says: "This tautoko will allow me to engage in deep wānanga with practitioners and extend my understanding of kaupapa Māori approaches to healing that draw on waiata, toi Māori, and pūrākau. It's part of my commitment to fostering spaces where our communities feel grounded and reconnected to their own mana and tapu, especially rangatahi finding their path through music. I'm grateful this award will support me to grow in this way and to carry what I learn forward."
Dr Jesse Austin-Stewart (he/him) is a composer, sound artist, and producer based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara.
As a physically disabled and neurodivergent person, Jesse's work seeks to promote accessibility for tāngata whaikaha Māori, d/Deaf, and disabled peoples within Aotearoa.
As a sound artist and composer, Jesse’s work explores ways to make the field more inclusive. He has composed for contemporary dance and film and created performance art works and sound installations. His works have been exhibited across Aotearoa, Australia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Japan, Sweden, USA, and more.
Jesse's work has represented Aotearoa numerous times and has received nominations at the Student Radio Network Awards. As a producer, he has recorded work for short films, orchestra, solo artists and bands, small ensemble, opera, and his work has received over 2,850,000 streams online.
A self-described pop, Wellington Phoenix, and Formula 1 fan, Jesse will be utilising the funds from the award to attend the UK's SOUND/IMAGE Festival - an annual celebration of sound and audiovisual practice, exploring how sound and image media fabricate, articulate and question the spaces of experience. Additionally, Jesse will meet with several disability music organisations to learn, network, and promote their work to open future opportunities.
Jesse continues: “The UK has really strong disability music activism and I’m excited by the chance to learn from them and see world leading sound art to help bring new ideas for accessibility in music back to Aotearoa. [...]
My artistic practice explores the intersection of sound art and music-disability advocacy, and I’m really excited to take new learnings from this trip that help develop new narratives and approaches in my work that benefit community, while also being led and informed by world class sound art work presented at SOUND/IMAGE Festival.”
Ladi6 is an Aotearoa pioneer of soulful, beat-driven music - blending hip hop and modular electronic soundscapes. Renowned for her authentic storytelling, Ladi6 has carved a path that honours her Pacific identity while pushing the boundaries of contemporary popular music.
Honoured as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2021, Ladi has been making award winning music for two decades, as well as being an Aotearoa live performance circuit favourite.
Now, standing at a crossroads, Ladi6 is looking to expand her legacy. Integrating her lived experience as an artist, a mother, and a student and women's counsellor, she is looking to bring a new layer to her work — one that holds space for collaboration, healing, vulnerability, and connection.
Grounded in her heritage and guided by her deep respect for Indigenous solidarity and collective wellbeing, Ladi intends to create a structured development programme designed to enhance their songwriting, collaboration, and creative output. Including plans in Brisbane to work closely with collaborators and First Nations artists, as well as similar journeys in Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch.
Ladi says: "My hope is to improve my songwriting skills & open up approach to other methods in order to enhance what I already value as a part of my creative practice through collaboration, innovation and artist engagement. I hope to be able to build more tools for my songwriting tool kit and develop a wider range of capabilities for my own work and a way to articulate those tools for sharing with others. I am so very grateful and beyond excited to travel this path knowing I am supported by the panel that have entrusted me with this award. I hope to serve you well."