The fourth Kia Mau Fest­iv­al is on from 1–16 June 2018. A con­tem­por­ary Indi­gen­ous theatre and dance exper­i­ence, the fest­iv­al cel­eb­rates Māori, Pasi­fika, First Nations artists and their com­pan­ies.

Kia Mau Fest­iv­al is an innov­at­ive exper­i­ence for whānau and com­munit­ies through­out the Wel­ling­ton region to engage with Tangata When­ua and First Nations artists from across te ao marama.

“Look­ing to the future of this Fest­iv­al and the industry we feel it’s import­ant to put youth at the fore­front” says Hone Kouka, Fest­iv­al Cur­at­or. “Youth focussed, wāhine led and socially per­tin­ent.  These key ele­ments are at the heart of the 2018 Fest­iv­al.”

Open­ing the Fest­iv­al is Wāhine Works with a pro­duc­tion of Waiora: Te-u-kai-po (The Home­land) by Hone Kouka. When the former Whangarei Girls’ High School stu­dents set up Wahine Works, they included in their aims for it to be an ongo­ing com­pany that would pro­duce access­ible theatre by char­ging no more than they or their whanau could afford.  This tal­en­ted team are thrilled to take advant­age of the ‘oppor­tun­ity of a life­time’ to travel to Wel­ling­ton and stage the open­ing act of the Fest­iv­al, 1–9 June at the Han­nah Play­house. Spokes­per­son for Wahine Works, Zahra Cher­ring­ton says “With this theatre pro­duc­tion, we are mak­ing the max­im­um effort to be acknow­ledged with our con­tri­bu­tion to the korero on Maori men­tal health and youth sui­cide and to our inclu­sion as Maori women in the future of New Zea­l­and. We think theatre is really, really import­ant so we want Wel­ling­ton, espe­cially Maori, to put on their coats and bean­ies to come see Waiora!”

Con­tinu­ing the theme of sup­port­ing and focus­ing on emer­ging artists are new works by emer­ging com­pan­ies such as OiOi Pro­duc­tions from Auck­land, with Beneath Skin and Bone and Y | Not from Christ­ch­urch with La’u Gagana, delving into the ques­tion of ‘New Zea­l­and Sam­oan vs Sam­oan New Zea­l­and … are they not the same?’

Most of the works will be at BATS Theatre who are offer­ing a sea­son pass – $45 for three shows in the Kia Mau Fest­iv­al.

Along­side the per­form­ances, the play­writ­ing fest­iv­al Break­ing Ground, 11–16 June,  will be look­ing at three new scripts by three emer­ging play­wrights from New Zea­l­and and Aus­tralia – Whitireia Per­form­ing Arts 2017 gradu­ate Maia Dia­mond, Sydney based emer­ging play­wright Hen­ri­etta Baird, and acclaimed Wel­ling­ton based act­or Nancy Brun­ning – all writers are wel­come to par­ti­cip­ate in this free script work­shop­ping plat­form.

 

 

2018 KIA MAU FESTIVAL LINE UP:

1–9 JUNE Waiora: Te-u-kai-po (The Home­land) writ­ten by Hone Kouka and dir­ec­ted by Wil­li­am Walk­er.  Presen­ted by Wāhine Works at Han­nah Play­house.

Hone Kouka’s vivid depic­tion of Māori mov­ing from their home­lands to the cit­ies of a dif­fer­ent people. Fea­tur­ing Lei­hana Shelford-Tito, Phoenix Kara­tiana, Zahra Cher­ring­ton-Irving, Kasey Harder, Ngar­imu Wyatt, Tracey King, Hana Gil­bert, Kayah Thompson, Mol­lie Jac­ob­son, Meg Robin­son, Jerome Tami­hana North­croft and Jur­ney Blair.

 

5–9 JUNE Whare by Huhu Dance, BATS Theatre Pro­peller Stage – writ­ten by Mapihi Kel­land, dir­ec­ted by Sasha Gibb.  

A cho­reo­graph­ic explor­a­tion of con­tem­por­ary Pasi­fika and self, Mapihi Kel­land (Ngāti Tuwhare­toa, Ngāti Kahun­gunu) joins with dan­cers Te Hau Win­itana (Ngāti Raupani, Atiawa, Tuhoe, Cook Islands), Sharn Te Pou (Tūhoe) and Par­is Evans (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Maniapoto, Raukawa, Sam­oa) on their very per­son­al artist­ic jour­ney in the search for what lies between.

 

 

5–9 JUNE Talofa Papa by The Co-Lab, BATS Theatre Hay­Dey Dome – cre­ated & per­formed by Kasi­ano Mita (Faleula, Sam­oa / Aitu­taki, Cook Islands).

A jour­ney with your grand­par­ents at the com­fort of your jan­dals! Papa shapes the audience’s story using Sam­oan cul­ture and mis­chief! Remind­ing you to slow down and breathe in the rich idea of fam­ily.  

 

 

6–9 JUNE La’u Gagana by Y | Not, BATS Theatre Hey­Day Dome – devised by Y|NOT and dir­ec­ted by Jake Arona. Fea­tur­ing Max­well Siulangapo, Talia-Rae Mavae­ga, Mana Tatafu, Shane Asi, Jake Arona and Tavita Neilsen-Mamea.

New Zea­l­and Sam­oan vs Sam­oan New Zea­l­and … are they not the same? L a’u Gagana tells the story of young Sam­oans and their struggle to prove them­selves as Sam­oan. The battle with self iden­tity gen­er­a­tions after Sam­oans settled here in New Zea­l­and. What makes a Sam­oan if not their lan­guage? Peni, who decided when he was a young man that the lan­guage of the land he occu­pies is the lan­guage to identi­fy with. Lumina’i, his daugh­ter, now struggles to identi­fy with the lan­guage of Peni’s home­land.

 

6–9 JUNE Bar­ri­er Ninja, BATS Theatre Pro­peller Stage – Cre­ated by Fran Kewene (Waikato / Tainui), Bar­ri­er Ninja is dir­ec­ted by Erina Daniels (Ngā Puhi) and fea­tures Julie Edwards (Te Arawa/Ngati Whakaue).

A ver­batim play based on the testi­mon­ies of nine people’s per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al exper­i­ences of Hauora.  This hol­ist­ic one-woman show exam­ines the exper­i­ences of health – phys­ic­al, emo­tion­al, men­tal, social and spir­itu­al caring – through their dif­fer­ent exper­i­ences.

 

 

 

 

7 JUNE Fao­vale Imper­i­um, Pataka Art + Museum, Pori­rua + 14 JUNE The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt.

Wellington’s premiere Comedi­an (James Nokise) and DJ (Don Luchito) team up to show­case a counter nar­rat­ive to the roman­ti­cised voy­ages of James Cook though the Pacific. A heady mix­ture of irrev­er­ent his­tory, pacific poetry, dynam­ic sound­scapes – it’s like the Dis­ney film Moana… told by two guys who don’t look like The Rock, who even com­bined wouldn’t be the same size as the Rock.

Wel­ling­ton Skuxo­lo­gist James Nokise has com­posed a Poem of Cap­tain Cook’s voy­age through the Pacific Region. He will humbly #behumble nav­ig­ate the many Pacific cul­tures, as care­fully as Cook him­self did, as James looks at the spread of the Enlight­en­ment… to people who knew how to sail without com­passes and live in eco­lo­gic­ally sound struc­ture.

FREE

 

9–10 JUNE Mamai’ata by Inano Dance, Pataka Art + Museum, Pori­rua + 16–17 JUNE The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt. Cho­reo­graphed by Te Hau Win­itana, Fea­tur­ing Te Hau Win­itana, Jordan Fuimaono, Sam­oana Nokise + Mapihi Kel­land.

 

Sheds new light upon the over­whelm­ing West­ern por­tray­als of Poly­ne­sian women who ura, siva and haka. Shown through a diverse aes­thet­ic of cross-cul­tur­al dance, mod­ern move­ment, sound, image and film.

FREE

 

12–16 JUNE He Kura e Huna Ana by Taki Rua Pro­duc­tions, BATS Theatre Hay­Day Dome – writ­ten by Hōhepa Waitoa and dir­ec­ted by Nancy Brun­ning.  Fea­tur­ing Puawai Blos­som Win­ter­burn, Tanea Heke, Scotty Cot­ter, Nepia Tak­uira-Mita, Sheree Waitoa. This new work is pro­duced by Taki Rua Pro­duc­tions.

Acclaimed te reo Māori pro­duc­tion He Kura E Huna Ana is per­form­ing in Wel­ling­ton for the first time. Drawn from tra­di­tion­al Ngāti Wae­wae kōrero, it tells of the ori­gins of poun­amu in Arahura. When Taur­anga Moana ancest­or Waitaiki is abduc­ted by the jeal­ous tani­wha Pou­tini, her lov­er Tamaahua pur­sues them to the depths of the Arahura River. Return­ing to her papa kāinga on the anniversary of her family’s death, young Hine seeks con­sol­a­tion in the myths of the green­stone trail. Raised solely by her Taua, Hine battles the grief that left her tipuna trans­formed into poun­amu. Me hoki whakamuri kia anga whakamua.

12–16 JUNE Deer Woman by ARTICLE 11 (Canada), BATS Theatre Pro­peller Stage – writ­ten & dir­ec­ted by Tara Beagan (Ntlaka’pamux) and Andy Moro (Omushkego Cree).  Fea­tures Cher­ish Viol­et Blood (Kainai) and is com­posed by Lacey Hill (Oneida).

Deer Woman is a solo war­ri­or woman work of right­eous ven­geance, star­ring Cher­ish Viol­et Blood. In a coun­try where 1,600 Indi­gen­ous women and girls are recog­nized as being miss­ing and/or murdered, Lila refuses to stand idly by. Lila is a big sis­ter miss­ing a little one. She is the daugh­ter of a hunter who taught her all he knew. She’s ex-army, but can’t seem to leave all that train­ing behind. Cir­cum­stances con­verge and Lila finds the per­fect oppor­tun­ity to avenge her baby sister’s murder while exer­cising the skills the Cana­dian gov­ern­ment trained into her.

Con­tent note: con­tains graph­ic his­tor­ic­al and con­tem­por­ary viol­ence.

13–16 JUNE Beneath Skin and Bone by OiOi Pro­duc­tions, BATS Theatre Pro­peller Stage – writ­ten by Trae Te Wiki, dir­ec­ted by Nee­nah Dek­kers-Reihana and with ori­gin­al music by Reuben But­ler.

Des­pite her best efforts, the memor­ies Poto tried to leave behind cloud her mind until she is drawn home. The essence of mana and magic slowly reveal the truth behind the dark past of her whānau. Through storytelling, wai­ata and move­ment, Te Wiki sis­ters, Trae (25) and Tial (11) weave togeth­er stor­ies of whānau, loss and whakapapa.

15 JUNE Tusks and Fevers by SaV­Age K’lub, The Pit, Te Ara Hihiko, Mas­sey Uni­ver­sity – Part art, part body part, spoken words, mov­ing image and con­vi­vi­al­ity. Writ­ten by James Wai­titi, Juli­an Chote + Ros­anna Ray­mond Tusks and Fevers is presen­ted by SaV­Age K’lub. Fea­tur­ing isshe­boys + Sis­t­ar S’pacific, you are invited to BYO regalia. Tusks and Fevers is dir­ec­ted by Ros­anna Ray­mond. Hon­ours the celes­ti­al, earthly, gene­a­lo­gic­al and queer bod­ies cris­scross­ing between the past and the present to cel­eb­rate Matariki.

FREE