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 the Pacif­ic — west­ern impe­ri­al­ism.

Fire In The Water, Fire In The Sky has var­i­ous per­for­mance times dur­ing the morn­ings. It shows in Tan­ga­ta Le Moana, Lev­el 4, Te Papa, and the per­form­ers move in and around the objects on dis­play. The audi­ence fol­lows them through the space — don’t be afraid to get clos­er and to walk around them.

Devel­oped as part of her Fulbright–Creative New Zealand Pacif­ic Writer Res­i­den­cy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hawai‘i, Mānoa, direc­tor Mīria George answered some of our ques­tions.

“ ‘Fire In The Water, Fire In The Sky’ has gath­ered emerg­ing and estab­lished artists based in Te Whān­ganui-a-tara.  In the rehearsal room I’ve been work­ing with three artists who are new to the pro­fes­sion­al indus­try, Te Hau Wini­tana, Mapi­hi Kel­land and Man­aran­gi Mua.  Work­ing from a nar­ra­tive researched and cre­at­ed in Hawai’i, we’ve devised the per­for­mance instal­la­tion on the rehearsal room floor.  Design­ers Tony De Gol­di and Cara Louise Ware­ti­ni have brought us nuances of time and space through props and cos­tumes — allow­ing our work to be a sto­ry on ideas — a mod­ern state­ment on cli­mate change and coloni­sa­tion in the Pacif­ic.   

Māori + Pasi­fi­ka whā­nau + hapū stand at the front line of cli­mate change — our waters and when­ua affect­ed — the impact upon the present and the future vast.  I want­ed to cre­ate a work of art that addressed the ongo­ing coloni­sa­tion of Māori + Pasi­fi­ka, whether entrenched in gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy or a con­tin­ued devalu­ing of our world­view, ‘Fire In The Water, Fire In The Sky’ is about now. 

For a long time I’ve want­ed to bring a per­for­mance instal­la­tion into gallery and muse­um spaces.  My father would take his chil­dren into gal­leries — these are famil­iar spaces for me, where cre­ativ­i­ty is both provoca­tive and chal­leng­ing.  My sec­ond stage play ‘and what remains’ pre­miered with­in the exhi­bi­tion space at the City Gallery, Welling­ton (in 2005) — as at the time more polit­i­cal work was more wide­ly embraced in a visu­al arts con­text. I want­ed to cross paths with patrons of gal­leries + muse­um — with those who are yet to expe­ri­ence a form of indige­nous per­for­mance.  My aim was to expose my world view direct­ly before these patrons — should they choose to watch and engage or not.  Often fam­i­lies will be with­in these spaces — par­ents with chil­dren who look on with curios­i­ty and can­not help to fol­low us through the space.

Gallery and muse­um spaces can be unex­pect­ed and dynam­ic — par­tic­u­lar­ly when com­bined with patrons who aren’t nec­es­sar­i­ly plan­ning to be engaged with our per­for­mance instal­la­tion.  These spaces often hold provoca­tive con­tem­po­rary work — chal­leng­ing con­ver­sa­tions ques­tion­ing the world around them and the dom­i­nant par­a­digm.  Muse­um spaces hold many of our taon­ga — taon­ga from through­out the coun­try and the greater Pacif­ic — our tupuna are depict­ed in these spaces  — and should not be for­got­ten in these spaces.  ‘Fire In The Water, Fire In The Sky’ evokes a cre­ative nar­ra­tive through­out gallery and muse­um spaces — where both con­tem­po­rary work and taon­ga alike also become a part of our instal­la­tion.     

I’m excit­ed to present out­side of the­atres — and in spaces where per­for­mance instal­la­tions are not nec­es­sar­i­ly com­mon space.  That audi­ences can encounter an indige­nous expe­ri­ence by a female artist may inspire then to search for more per­for­mance expe­ri­ences — and that I might one day see them also inside of the the­atre! If audi­ences would come away curi­ous to con­sid­er the mul­ti­ple ways of life that  they’ve been shown in this work, that audi­ences would con­sid­er the way our worlds col­lide — just like them encoun­ter­ing this piece. ”