Maori singer Maisey Rika brings the beauty and soul of her island homeland back to the Hawaii Theatre on Sunday.

Blessed with a voice that seems to drift down from the clouds and blend with the ocean breeze, Rika has been one of New Zealand’s most popular singers since she burst onto the scene as a student over 20 years ago, singing in both English and Te Reo Maori, the Maori language. She’s often called on to represent her culture overseas, performing in conjunction with a Maori exhibit at a Dutch museum in 2011 and Universal World’s Volcano Bay attraction in Orlando, Fla., last year.

“I sing mostly in Te Reo Maori, and it seems to connect,” she said in a phone call from her home in Whakatane, an ocean-side town on the scenic nation’s North Island. “A lot of people have heard it, and they don’t speak Maori but they can understand what I’m talking about by the feel of it, by the spirit of the music.”

RIKA HEADLINES a talented group of Maori artists here, as she did in 2015, and music fans here in Hawaii should feel right at home with their music — not only because we’re experienced hearing chants and in Polynesian languages, but because we understand their inspiration as well.

Rika often gives brief explanations of her songs, and said they reflect a deep attachment of land and culture.

“It’s about our land and the origins of it. It’s about our language, and preserving what we have for future generations,” she said. Songs can refer to things like earthquakes and volcanoes, or the ocean sea gods.

Music is an integral part of Maori culture, she said. Maori songs can be heard in places like the “marae,” a term now commonly used in New Zealand to designate a meeting place but which originally referred to the traditional sacred meeting houses of the Maori people.

“It was customary to sing a ‘waita,’ a song, after a speech, like a welcome song,” she said. “There’s a big ceremony that happens, and we have our speakers and after every speaker there’s a song, and it talks about the tribe or it talks about the particular area. … And then we allow for the visitors to speak as well, and most often they follow protocol and sing a song as well.”

Maori people are also quite proud to claim as one of their own the renowned opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa, who performed at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, and here in Hawaii in 2011. “She’s paved the way for so many people. She’s an inspiration to all of us,” Rika said. “And that style! Beautiful! I think that comes from her Maori side.”

Rika grew up in a musical family. Her mother was a well-known singer and encouraged her to sing at a Maori gathering at around age 5. “I remember saying, ‘OK, everybody close your eyes!’” she said. “And I learned from a young age that they weren’t telling me to shut up. They were clapping and smiling, and I can make people happy doing this type of thing. And that’s all I wanted to do, was make people happy and hope that they feel the way I do when I sing.”

She emerged on her own as a student at St. Joseph’s Maori Girls College in Taradale, where she sang with the school’s “kapa haka,” or performing group. The principal of the school invited her into the office one day.

“She asked me if I knew ‘Po Karekare Ana,’ which was a song made famous by Kiri Te Kanawa. I sang what I knew, and she cut me (off) halfway through and it wasn’t like a happy cut; it was a ‘Stop!’ cut,” Rika said, laughing. “She was like, ‘I’ve heard enough!’ and I thought, ‘Oh no.’ And then (she) turned to me and said, ‘I’ll see you at practice. You’re going to sing solo.’”

At age 13 Rika recorded her debut album, “E Hine,” an anthology of traditional Maori love songs. It went double platinum in New Zealand and was named the best Maori-language album at the 1997 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards. Rika has since gone on to win many more awards in New Zealand, winning four in 2010, another four in 2013. Her 2014 album “Whitiora” was named best album, and her 2017 release “Tira” earned her a nomination as best Maori artist, but she withdrew her name to show support for other Maori artists.

She will be performing here with fellow Maori artists Rob Ruha, Seth Haapu and Horomona Horo. Ruha calls himself a “Haka Soul” musician who reminds Rika of John Legend, while Horo is an expert at traditional Maori instruments. Known collectively as “taonga puoro,” they consist of a variety of flutes, conches and percussion instruments. “You’ll be amazed at what he can play,” Rika said.