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.