Wha Cup! Aaron Tokona T-shirt

Wha Cup! the trademark catchphrase of beloved musician Aaron Tokona has become a tagline, along with an ‘iconic’ photo of him for a t-shirt campaign raising awareness of mental health and support for the artist’s tamāhine, Asha.

Here’s a great way to celebrate a beloved musician during Aotearoa Music Month.

The expression was coined by Aaron, alongside others like ‘mean’, ‘mick’ and ‘buzz’, all part of the colourful lexicon of his prankster stage banter. Aaron passed away suddenly last June from a heart attack, leaving behind whanau and friends across the music industry.

As a fantastic and dynamic musician he was known as the ‘Hendrix of Aotearoa’ playing in many bands including Weta, Cairo Knife Fight, AHori Buzz, Bongmaster and Fly My Pretties. He was well known for his generous spirit on and off the stage.

To celebrate his life and give something back in his memory The ‘Wha Cup’ T-shirt campaign was created, inspired by a ‘crazy idea’ originally dreamed up by Aaron and long time friend and rock photographer, Alexander Hallag.

Both suffered with mental health issues over the years and supported each other through hard times. In a lighter moment they made a joke about creating something iconic together which could help and support others with mental health issues. The image of Aaron was created as a homage to photographer Jim Marshall who created the internationally known photograph of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison.

Hallag says Aaron joked that “he’d give me one of those” – meaning the middle finger while playing. 3 shows later, during a Hori Buzz gig, he delivered on that promise and gave me the finger. “We shared a laugh looking at it together, and joked that we should do something with it, that maybe it could help others.” After his ultimately death on the 20th of June, 2020, say Hallag, “I felt lost, my friend was gone, his laughter, kindness, support and love”.

The exhibition From the Pit sent out a call to music photographers looking for submissions for their 2021 exhibition and I found the image and started thinking about it and how we laughed about how maybe we could help others with it.

From that the idea of the “Wha Cup” shirt came about, and making it a benefit to support MusicHelps (Āwhina Puoro) and his daughter, Asha.

T-Shirts are available through Flying Out and RPM Wellington plus more.

Take a photo of yourself wearing the T and post it to facebook.com/whacup