TE Vaka and Vince Harder have dominated this year’s Pacific Music Awards, which were announced at an event in Auckland on Thursday night.

Both the Best Pacific Song and Best Pacific Album awards were won by Te Vaka, a group who were founded back in 1995 and are now known as mainstays of the Pacific music and dance scene in New Zealand.

Unfortunately, songwriter and vocalist Opetaia Foa’I wasn’t in the building to accept the award; he had to skip the ceremony this year as he’s currently working on the soundtrack to Moana, a Disney film due out in November which was written by Taika Waititi.

The event, which was held at the Vodafone Events Centre in Manukau, also saw Vince Harder lock in three awards — Best Pacific Male Artiste, Best Pacific Urban Artiste and Best Producer.

Harder said winning the Best Producer award was huge for him and during his acceptance speech he took time to acknowledge fellow nominee and former Illegal Musik labelmate, NOX, who played an immense role in helping to mentor Harder in the studio.

Other winners on the night included Annie Grace (Best Pacific Female Artiste), Common Kings (Best International Pacific Artiste), Sol3 Mio (Best Pacific Group), and Savage (Radio Airplay and Outstanding Achievement). Local hip hop trio Team Dynamite — made up of Haz’ Beats, Tony Tz and Lucky Lance — also took out the Best Pacific Music Video award for Cosmos Re-Up, which was directed by local videographer Eddy Fifield.