New Zealand’s only con­tem­po­rary indige­nous the­atre and dance event Kia Mau Fes­ti­val returns to Welling­ton from Fri­day 2 – Sat­ur­day 24 June. It’s a unique and inno­v­a­tive oppor­tu­ni­ty for whā­nau and com­mu­ni­ties across the Welling­ton region to engage with today’s tan­ga­ta when­ua and First Nations artists from across the globe.

Led by Wellington’s own Māori and Pasi­fi­ka the­atre and dance com­pa­nies, the per­form­ers will chal­lenge the idea of what Māori, Pasi­fi­ka and Indige­nous the­atre and dance is. There are 14 events across three glo­ri­ous weeks in venues across the region from Porirua City to Welling­ton City to Upper Hutt City.

Along­side the Kia Mau Fes­ti­val is Break­ing Ground (for­mer­ly known as the Matari­ki Devel­op­ment Fes­ti­val) A vital devel­op­ment fes­ti­val that will work­shop and test new ideas and sto­ries with­in a mana Māori, mana Pasi­fi­ka kau­pa­pa.

Week one starts with Tiki Taane Mahuta. ​Live music, the­atre, aer­i­al per­for­mance, con­tem­po­rary dance, kapa haka, mau rākau and hip hop are used to depict two gen­er­a­tions of New Zealand fam­i­lies and the tragedy, hope and redemp­tion which con­nect them. Sounds amaz­ing right? It’s sold out. If, like me, you’re now kick­ing your­self, make sure you book tick­ets to the oth­er shows!

Fire In The Water, Fire In The Sky

Told through move­ment, dance and text, this is a mod­ern state­ment on cli­mate change, coloni­sa­tion and Chris­tian­i­ty across the Pacif­ic Rim. It’s an untan­gling of the great­est col­li­sion to have affect­ed Te Moana-nui-a-kiva – west­ern impe­ri­al­ism.

  • Var­i­ous per­for­mance times dur­ing the morn­ing at Pata­ka Art + Muse­um, Porirua 6–10 June 2017, then Te Papa Ton­gare­wa 13 – 17 June. Per­for­mances are free to watch.

Por­trait of an artist mon­grel 

Self pro­claimed young mon­grel, poet and play­wright, Row­ley Habib, will be remem­bered one year after his pass­ing in a pre­sen­ta­tion of his works. His char­ac­ters chal­lenge the sta­tus quo, strug­gle with iso­la­tion from their trib­al lands, fight for the right to access their lan­guage and cul­tur­al her­itage or dis­card the Māori way of life com­plete­ly.

  • On at BATS The­atre 6 & 7 June 2017

NeoIndi­ge­nA

The time­less, intense and tran­scen­dent solo rit­u­al cre­at­ed and per­formed by San­tee Smith, it hon­ours land and fem­i­nine body as sacred, cer­e­mo­ni­al prac­tices and is both ancient and present. A phys­i­cal marathon, San­tee is an artist in her full pow­er, unleash­ing a wild, frag­ile, potent per­for­mance that draws inspi­ra­tion from her Onkwehon:we (Iro­quois) way of being

  • On at BATS The­atre 6–10 June 2017

Lick my past

Play­ful and exu­ber­ant Nan­cy and Kel­ly don’t take take them­selves too seri­ous­ly now  that their long stress­ful dance careers are a mat­ter of choice.  It’s sur­pris­ing just how strange and fun­ny these two Maori and Pake­ha wahine’s lives can be as they slip between both as friends and foe.

  • On at BATS The­atre 7–10 June 2017

Gath­er­ing clouds

In prepa­ra­tion for the com­ing of Cap­tain Cook’s cel­e­bra­tions, three pacif­ic artists work­shop their con­cept of the storm of coloni­sa­tion across the Pacif­ic, and the dev­as­ta­tion left in its path. NZ Slam Poet Cham­pi­on Te Kahu Rolle­ston, Young NZ of the Year Jahra Wasasala and Inter­na­tion­al Fringe per­former James Nokise, com­bine their tal­ents for a new, exper­i­men­tal, piece look­ing at colonialism’s toll on the Pacif­ic.

  • On at BATS The­atre 7–10 June 2017

Friday’s flock

Inspired by the sto­ries and per­son­al­i­ties of the rur­al com­mu­ni­ty and filled with kiwi humour. Rei­hana Haron­ga plays all 7 char­ac­ters, rang­ing from farm dog to farmer to farm wife, with skil­ful tim­ing and pre­ci­sion char­ac­ter­i­sa­tion.

  • On at BATS The­atre 8–10 June 2017

River­side Kings

A sto­ry inspired by the sub­urb of Tim­ber­lea, Upper Hutt. Peni a new­ly retired box­er receives the call to come home. He is reunit­ed with  Sala­ki, his younger and direc­tion­less broth­er who has remained at home.  Peni finds that time has changed Tim­ber­lea as much as life has changed them. With ques­tions, mem­o­ries and unfin­ished words in the air, expect­ing the whole of Samoa for Christ­mas, will they move for­ward and cre­ate new tra­di­tions and mem­o­ries to last?

  • On at Expres­sions Whiri­na­ki, Upper Hutt 9 June 2017, then at BATS The­atre 13–17 June 2017.

 

Week two

This is what it looks like

Room a mess, in her bed, unshow­ered, sits Di. Alone. Except for her radio and her phone, nei­ther of which she likes very much right now. Mean­while, fol­low­ing the dis­ap­pear­ance of her Uncle, Eri is deter­mined to find him. Fear­less in the com­pa­ny of a flower she named Aho­ran­gi, 9‑yr old Eri sets off on a jour­ney into the for­est. But let’s not beat around the bush. This is def­i­nite­ly, with­out a doubt, a show about depres­sion. If that word puts you off, maybe you should come watch it — it’s fun­ny and stuff. And Finn will be there…

  • On at BATS The­atre 14–17 June 2017

Man­a­ia

A short works pro­gramme by Atami­ra Dance Com­pa­ny show­cas­ing the strong female chore­o­graph­ic voice from with­in the com­pa­ny. Pito by Nan­cy Wijohn explores themes around mater­nal con­nec­tion, and attempts to uncov­er mean­ings of loss, aban­don­ment and pain to find light, enlight­en­ment and love. Te Waen­ganui by Gabrielle Thomas explores the three fin­gers of the man­a­ia – birth, life, and death – and the space between, known as Te Waen­ganui. Kel­ly Nash presents Mā, a reframed and recon­tex­tu­alised look at the myth of demigod Maui and his efforts to gain eter­nal life by exploit­ing the god­dess Hine Nui Te Po.

  • On at the Han­nah Play­house 14–20 June 2017

The Maori side­steps 

The newest and naugh­ti­est Maori Show­band on the Aotearoa enter­tain­ment scene the Side­steps turn some of your favourite songs on their head in a mix of satir­i­cal skits and croon­ing good­ness.

  • On at BATS The­atre 15–17 June 2017

Pur­ple Onion

Peeps into the world of Wellington’s infa­mous bur­lesque par­lour, the Pur­ple Onion.  Estab­lished in the mid 1960s, the Pur­ple Onion was Wellington’s pre­miere strip club which attract­ed some of New Zealand’s social elite as well as its fair share of dubi­ous char­ac­ters. Com­bin­ing text, dance and a live funk band, the show acknowl­edges the sig­nif­i­cant his­tor­i­cal con­tri­bu­tions of the les­bian, gay, trans and queer com­mu­ni­ties to the Pur­ple Onion as well as the social night life of Welling­ton City dur­ing the 1960s and 70s.

  • On at the Han­nah Play­house 16 & 17 June 2017

Mata and the Mys­te­ri­ous Musi­cal Maun­ga

An Aotearoa musi­cal adven­ture as 10-year-old Mata jour­neys to a mys­te­ri­ous maun­ga to seek an ancient kōauau. Being guid­ed by ngā manu and waia­ta, Mata faces dan­ger­ous chal­lenges and encoun­ters quirky and charm­ing char­ac­ters who help him on his way

  • Free per­for­mance at Te Papa Ton­gare­wa 17 June 2017

 

Week three

The Moon­cake and the Kūmara

Near­ly nine­ty years ago on a New Zealand mar­ket gar­den, two fam­i­lies, one Māori and the oth­er Chi­nese, became part of a romance that would uproot their lives over gen­er­a­tions.

Lay­ered with myth and fable, The Moon­cake and the Kūmara is a mov­ing sto­ry about a mixed-up, Māori-Chi­nese love affair that sprouts among rows of pota­toes. Told in a rich mix­ture of Eng­lish, Māori and Can­tonese, The Moon­cake and the Kūmara is the debut, award-win­ning play by Māori-Chi­nese play­wright Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen.

  • On at the Han­nah Play­house 21–24 June 2017.