The Kia Mau Fest­iv­al star­ted last week and is already racing along. It’s a treat to see Māori and Pasi­fika excel­lence in live per­form­ance – here’s what’s on this week.

All I See at Circa Theatre

The explo­sion of grief causes memor­ies to rico­chet around her.

Memor­ies begin to bleed into her real­ity.

Time col­lapses.

When one gets rowdy with a cup of tea at 6pm, and the oth­er is con­fid­ent she has almost watched the whole of Net­flix, describ­ing their ideal best friend would not even­tu­ate to each oth­er. Yet, this friend­ship is the one sol­id thing they both can count on.

Des­pite an age dif­fer­ence stretch­ing over forty years, the two find com­pan­ion­ship in the most unlikely of places – the graves of their meant-to-be life part­ners.

Te Mauri o Pōhutu at Toi Poneke

A new series of col­lab­or­at­ive install­a­tion and time-based art­works by Bianca Hyslop, Row­an Pierce and Tūī Matira Rana­piri Rans­field.

The work responds to the loss of mātaur­anga Māori due to cul­tur­al inter­rup­tion and assim­il­a­tion.

It is a sen­su­al offer­ing that addresses the fra­gil­ity of memory, con­nec­tion to when­ua and reclam­a­tion of cul­ture from with­in for­eign frame­works

The Mourning After at Circa Theatre

After the death of his fath­er, Kiwi-born Shekar travels to his father’s vil­lage in the Pearl of the Indi­an Ocean, Sri Lanka, to dis­cov­er that a tsunami has swept away the vil­lage – all that remains are the stor­ies and those left behind. As Shekar sifts through the ruins in search of answers, the bur­ied truths of his past are revealed. A the­at­ric­al col­lage of move­ment, text, sound and excav­a­tion fea­tur­ing a spell­bind­ing solo per­form­ance accom­pan­ied by a trio of musi­cians.

Reclamation at Circa Theatre

A son­ic journ­al of immig­rant Sri Lankan Tamil life, brings music, found sound, words, archiv­al mater­i­al and light togeth­er to recol­lect his­tory through this immers­ive audio piece.

Neke at Te Auaha

A devised phys­ic­al theatre work that explores the pil­lars of Māor­i­dom, Neke is the search, the hunt and the cel­eb­ra­tion of what nav­ig­ates our indi­vidu­al haer­enga as Māori.

Kia tūhonoga tatou. To con­nect us.

Neke is about dis­cov­er­ing kaitiakit­anga, remem­brance, the inner haka and the evol­u­tion of mana motuhake.

Told through move­ment, char­ac­ter, voice and hard out crack ups.

Brown Crown at BATS Theatre

Set in a con­tem­por­ary world, Brown Crown is the story of a young Sam­oan woman’s jour­ney through life. Sur­roun­ded by expect­a­tions and leg­acy, her life is over-shad­owed by the old legend of Nafanua, told to her as a young girl by her grand­moth­er.

Brown Crown is a reflec­tion of how much Pasi­fika women carry upon their shoulders.

Peter Paka Paratene at Te Papa (tonight only!)

Rawiri Par­a­tene presents his final per­form­ance of his solo show Peter Paka Par­a­tene; a music­al, cheeky look through the round win­dow into his extraordin­ary life and career.

In a per­form­ance career span­ning nearly 50 years, Rawiri Par­a­tene (…aka Peter Dav­id Broughton ONZM…. aka Paka) has graced the worlds stages and screens in icon­ic per­form­ances such as Koro in Whale Rider and Ham­let in Shakespeares Globe to Globe. After suf­fer­ing a stroke in 2019 Par­a­tene has decided to leave the worlds stage – but not before a final turn in the lime­light.

In this intim­ate night, Rawiri shares his own poetry, songs and favour­ite clas­sic­al works as he regales the audi­ence with stor­ies of the three dis­tinct phases of his life; Peter, Paka and Par­a­tene.

The Māori Side Steps at the Opera House (tomorrow night only!)

Fresh from Hari with The Māori Sidesteps on Māori TV, these tal­en­ted ful­las return with their ‘belly laugh­ing, thought-pro­vok­ing and sing-a-longy’ per­form­ance that deliv­ers a fresh and enlight­en­ing per­spect­ive of the evol­u­tion of the Māori show­band.

Expect soul­ful har­mon­ies, satir­ic­al skits and gen­er­al hil­ar­ity.

Maetu at BATS Theatre

Water­ing lem­on­grass, star­ing at a screen and walk­ing through empty hall­ways – a day to day ritu­al.

As Maetu sits in her little green house she strings back memor­ies through her house­hold objects that have brought her to where she is now. This is an abstract and imagery based piece that tells the story of a won­der­ful grandma.

Eat These Words at BATS Theatre

Miss Lead­ing, has returned to New Zea­l­and from two years per­form­ing her unique com­bin­a­tion of poetry and elec­tron­ic ambi­ent pop across the UK includ­ing the Edin­burgh Fringe Fest­iv­al.

After a sell-out show at New Zea­l­and Fringe Fest­iv­al, her show Eat These Words returns to invite you to com­fort eat your way through her emo­tion­al roller coast­er of con­front­ing, polit­ic­al, and miser­able poetry (along with a few laughs).

Lur­ing attendees with snacks, she aims to take you through a full sens­ory exper­i­ence with music, visu­als and taste.

Witi’s Wāhine at Te Whaea

Lov­ingly craf­ted from excerpts from Witi Ihimaera’s col­lec­tion of short stores and nov­els, our indom­it­able heroines take you on an epic jour­ney across their his­tory, their myth­o­logy and cul­tur­al con­scious­ness as we recog­nise the pas­sion, truth and spir­it of mana wāhine.

Before I Go Home at Island Bay Community Centre

A night of poetry cel­eb­rat­ing migrant voices of Pōneke.

Cur­ated & hos­ted by Wel­ling­ton poets Khadro Mohamed and Ronia Ibrahim, Before I Go Home fea­tures pop­u­lar and emer­ging Pōneke poets from migrant back­grounds, includ­ing Chris Tse, Vanessa Crof­s­key, Emma Shi, Nuzha Salem, Areez Katki and Adri­ana Che Ismail. The event will be in col­lab­or­a­tion with inde­pend­ent book sellers Caro DeCarlo and Jack­son Nieuw­land from Food Court Books.