Rob Kipa-Williams portrayed Kiwi builder Ari Parata on Home and Away for two-and-a-half-years.
Fans of the popular Channel Seven soap were disappointed when the actor suddenly vanished from their TV screens in March 2022.
The 32-year-old has now broken his silence on his departure from the show in an interview with Yahoo! Lifestyle.
Rob’s character was written out in a storyline that saw him die from a rare form of cancer.
He has since kept a low profile on social media and relocated from Sydney, Australia to Aotearoa in New Zealand to start a passion project.
Rob Kipa-Williams (pictured) has broken his silence on his shock departure from Home and Away
Rob’s character was written out in a storyline that saw him die from a rare form of cancer last year. Pictured
Rob said that a ‘calling’ pulled him closer to his Maori heritage last year before he purchased a 220-acre farm in Kaipara along with three friends.
His new move has allowed him to become fluent in the native Te Reo language which was only recognised by the New Zealand government in 1987.
‘It takes one generation to lose a language, and three generations to get it back,’ he said.
Rob revealed his grandparents were beaten at their school for using the language.
His grandfather lost the ability to speak Maori in his later life – a huge blow which rippled through the generations.
‘It’s a really important phase of the next stage of my life [to learn the language],’ he said.
Rob has also began to develop an app called HAAA which would allow users to discover Polynesian meditation sounds.
The actor bid an emotional farewell from Home and Away in March, 2022.
‘Thank you to the fans, for all the love and crazy amounts of messages and support,’ he wrote on Instagram at the time.
‘I’m honoured to have co-created Maori cultural storylines, and will forever be proud of those scenes that made it to the screen.’
Rob said that a ‘calling’ pulled him closer to his Maori heritage last year before he purchased a 220-acre farm in Kaipara along with three friends
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