Do we like Stan Walker?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Kind and community-minded with no campaign against anyone, marked down for a 2015 post and a 2016 stage shared with Brian Tamaki.
Walker's story starts with identity. He is Māori, of Tūhoe and Ngāti Tuwharetoa descent, and he has said that early in his career in Australia he was told to be “less Māori” to succeed. He went the other way: te reo songs, marae scenes in his video clips, and a career that leans into where he comes from.
The black mark on the LGBTQ+ side is from 2015. During the State of Origin, he posted a Hangover still captioned “So long, gay boys” at the New South Wales team. An openly gay One News reporter called it “accidental homophobia”. Walker first said people were getting worked up over something harmless, then deleted the post and apologised on Twitter, saying no offence was meant.
The second mark is company. In November 2016 he spoke at Destiny Church's Man Up conference, despite public calls to pull out over Brian Tamaki's comments, which critics linked to gay people. An RNZ columnist wrote that Tamaki had blamed an earthquake on the LGBTQ community. The reports I read carry no statement from Walker on the criticism, and I found nothing newer showing him back on that stage.
On the wider harm check, there's not much against him. I found no campaigning against trans or gay people, no anti-vax or climate-denial material, and nothing about the company he keeps in recent work. In 2021 he joined a Covid vaccination campaign aimed at young Māori. In 2023 he praised Te Pāti Māori at Rātana, saying “if I win and my people lose, what's the point in that?”
In May 2025, minister Chris Bishop was filmed muttering “what a load of crap” during Walker's Aotearoa Music Awards performance, where performers showed Toitū Te Tiriti flags. Bishop said his frustration was with the politics on stage, not Walker, and that he wouldn't apologise. Whether you see a protest or a bad night out depends on your view of the Treaty Principles Bill. Walker himself was on the receiving end. In 2024 he also copped social media criticism for interviewing Ziggy Marley, and TVNZ pulled the piece.
The good stuff is practical. In 2023 he released a Christmas song with Kindness Collective, with proceeds going to a store giving gifts to kids. The 2021 vaccine campaign was funded through Māori agencies and aimed squarely at rangatahi. His Family Tree school challenge now has kids singing on stage with him.