Mahinārangi Tocker

{{short description|New Zealand singer-songwriter}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=November 2017}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Mahinārangi Tocker

| image = Mahinarangi Tocker at the 2007 Auckland Folk Festival.jpg

| caption = Tocker at the 2007 Auckland Folk Festival

| birth_name =

| birth_date = 1955

| birth_place =

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2008|04|15|1955|df=yes}}

| death_place =

| genre =

| occupation = {{hlist|Singer|songwriter}}

| instrument =

| years_active = 1985–2008

| label =

| associated_acts =

| website =

}}

Mahinārangi Tocker {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MNZM|size=85%}} (1955{{Cite news |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominionpost/4495040a24437.html |last=Kitchin|first=Peter|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208032838if_/http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominionpost/4495040a24437.html|archive-date=8 February 2009|title=Mahinarangi Tocker: Singer from the heartland |work=Dominion Post |date=2008-04-24 |access-date=2008-05-20}} – 15 April 2008) was a singer-songwriter from New Zealand. Tocker wrote more than 600 songs in a 25-year career{{Cite web|url=http://www.nzmusician.co.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/article/pi_articleid/711|title=The Mongrel in Mahinarangi|work=NZ Musician Magazine|accessdate=2008-04-15|date=October 2005|author=Kiran Dass|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081018065231/http://www.nzmusician.co.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/article/pi_articleid/711|archive-date=18 October 2008|url-status=dead}} in the jazz fusion folk-pop genre.{{Citation |last=Sheehan |first=Maree |title=Māori women at the forefront of Aotearoa/New Zealand music in the mid 1980s and early 1990s |date=2021-12-30 |work=The Routledge Handbook of Women’s Work in Music |pages=289–297 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429201080/chapters/10.4324/9780429201080-29 |access-date=2024-03-28 |edition=1 |place=London |publisher=Routledge |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780429201080-29 |isbn=978-0-429-20108-0 |author-link=Maree Sheehan|url-access=subscription }} Her vocal style has been compared to that of Joan Armatrading and Tracy Chapman.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=513&objectid=10504255|title=Musician Mahinarangi Tocker dies age 52|work=New Zealand Herald|date=2008-04-15|accessdate=2008-04-16}} She also gave lectures around New Zealand about the use of music and creativity to boost learning and self-esteem, and was an adult literacy tutor, writer and poet.