Mahora Peters (Ngati Wai) has traveled the world as the lead singer for the Maori Volcanics showband of which she was co-founder. She began her professional musical career at age fifteen and was touring with the theatrical show, Maori, by the time she was seventeen. Mahora is now working on a documentary on Maori musicians and the script for a feature film. James George was the winner of the premiere award in the 2001 Maori Literature Awards judged by Keri Hulme. His second novel Hummingbird was a finalist in both the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2004 and the Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize 2005.