What a joy­ful priv­i­lege to expe­ri­ence week one of the Kia Mau Fes­ti­val. I made it to six events. Visu­al­ly gor­geous work with strong themes of connection/disconnection from cul­ture, the neces­si­ty of trans­for­ma­tion, and response to new sit­u­a­tions build­ing off the work of the ances­tors. Each had lay­ers ref­er­enc­ing the past and future, woven through in order to high­light the present. Time was trans­formed. Shows were pre­sent­ed across the city, from Par­lia­ment to Te Whaea, in the­atres and per­form­ing arts edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions.  I heard at least four lan­guages ris­ing from the stage — music for the ears and the spir­it. We laughed, we wept, we were chal­lenged and embold­ened to rise to meet it. 

What will week two bring us?

Breaking Ground at Te Auaha

A writ­ing fes­ti­val of ideas, craft­ed into life by play­wrights from across Aotearoa. This year, the fes­ti­val will be imag­in­ing new sto­ries for the stage. Work will be shared at the end of the week.

Tinā at Te Auaha

TINĀ is a brand new work by ground­break­ing col­lec­tive TULOU. It invokes pas­sion and heart through it’s fierce move­ment vocab­u­lary that has roots in Pacif­ic and Con­tem­po­rary dance. Per­formed by a strong cast of women, TINĀ explores con­cepts of moth­er­hood and mana wāhine. You will see bold and excit­ing move­ment, bright cos­tumes and heart­felt moments shared between pow­er­ful women. You can expect to leave the the­atre feel­ing exhil­a­rat­ed and empow­ered.

Upu at Circa Theatre

The pow­er of Māori + Pasi­fi­ka lit­er­a­ture roar­ing to the­atri­cal life.

The world of Ocea­nia is not small. From the ener­getic vol­ca­noes of O’ahu to the south­ern reach­es of Aotearoa, she is bor­der­less and vast – and grow­ing big­ger by the day. After decades of dis­missal and dis­con­nec­tion, her chil­dren are clos­er than ever. It’s time for a reunion. Curat­ed by award-win­ning poet Grace Iwashita-Tay­lor and led by pow­er­house direc­tor Fasitua Amosa, UPU gives the stage to Oceania’s most elec­tri­fy­ing poet­ry. Tusi­a­ta Avia, Audrey Brown-Pereira, Kar­lo Mila, Albert Wendt and more: UPU is for the trail­blaz­ers, the icons and the new writ­ers trans­form­ing Aotearoa today.

Te Rongomaiwhiti at BATS Theatre

Four mokop­una descend­ed from four Atua Māori are sent to the sacred school of learn­ing – ‘Te Wānan­ga o ngā Atua.’ There they are to learn how to har­ness their ‘mau­ri’ – inner pow­er and one day car­ry out the impor­tant roles of their grand­par­ents as guardians of ‘Te Ao’ and ‘Te Pō.’

How­ev­er, like all great pow­ers there is also great respon­si­bil­i­ties that they must learn along the way to ensure that every­thing is in uni­son and as it should be. This is the ‘Mana Atua’ qual­i­ties that they pos­sess as indi­vid­u­als which when com­bined is more pow­er­ful than any­thing. How­ev­er, each mokop­una has their own ideas and upbring­ings on how the world should be but that must all be put aside for the greater good of our realm. If not, then the world as we know and see it will dimin­ish before our very eyes.

Suit­able for all ages, eth­nic­i­ties and lan­guages. A ful­ly immersed the­atre pro­duc­tion which fus­es kapa haka, tikan­ga Māori, te reo Māori and influ­enced by a Māori World view all neat­ly pack­aged into a Māori the­atre pro­duc­tion.

He Tangata at BATS Theatre

Heal­ing ron­goa for gen­er­a­tional trau­ma and loss of takatāpui­tan­ga. A search for the for­got­ten taon­ga of Te Ao Maori. A reminder of one­ness. This work dances through the realms of ira tan­ga­ta and ira atua, explor­ing whaka­pa­pa and sto­ries of takat­a­pui exis­tence, to remem­ber, mourn and heal from gen­er­a­tional trau­ma.

In an act to weave takat­a­pui and Māori­tan­ga back togeth­er, He Tan­ga­ta looks back­wards whilst mov­ing for­wards as we trav­el with­in the past, present and future of Takat­a­pui­tan­ga.

Daughter at Circa Theatre

A Black Moana Sov­er­eign Sto­ry by Ter­e­moana Rap­ley.

Get a rare glimpse into the cre­ative world of fre­quen­cy-bend­ing poly­math Ter­e­moana Rap­ley as she presents a flu­id mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary, work-in-progress, live per­for­mance, lis­ten­ing par­ty of her antic­i­pat­ed debut album, Daugh­ter of a House­girl to be released in 2022. Manip­u­lat­ed black-cen­tric still and mov­ing visu­als from the unre­leased album cou­pled with bass-heavy tracks inter­wo­ven with sweet acoustic fla­men­co inspired incan­ta­tions that sit with­in an evolv­ing sea­son­al back drop adding to the tone and mood of her long-await­ed work. Part one of a trip­tych series, this is Daugh­ter.

O Le Pa’a Ma Ona Vae at BATS Theatre

On the eve of his return to NZ, a young man’s grand­fa­ther appears to him in the form of a crab to say good­bye.

Explor­ing alo­fa that tran­scends the con­fines of our per­ceived real­i­ty, and the dif­fer­ent forms that that can take, O Le Pa’a Ma Ona Vae is a new work from Samoana Nokise about how our loved ones con­tin­ue to be there for us, if only we look beyond the phys­i­cal.

Te Wheke at Te Whaea

Artis­tic Direc­tor Jack Gray marks the 21 years of  Atami­ra Dance Com­pa­ny with the col­lab­o­ra­tive new work Te Wheke. 

The work brings togeth­er Aotearoa’s lead­ing names in con­tem­po­rary dance includ­ing Arts Foun­da­tion Lau­re­ate Louise Poti­ki Bryant, Dolina Wehipei­hana, Taane Mete, Kel­ly Nash, Gabrielle Thomas, Kura Te Ua and Bian­ca Hys­lop.

These eight chore­o­graph­ic prac­ti­tion­ers, with a cast of eight dancers includ­ing Sean Mac­Don­ald, explore the dimen­sions of human expe­ri­ence sym­bol­ised by the eight ten­ta­cles of Te Wheke — the Octo­pus, a pow­er­ful guardian on this jour­ney from past into future.

Solo and ensem­ble expres­sions of dark­ness and light occur with­in a shape shift­ing world of float­ing black silk. Lay­ers of sym­bol­ism emanate through the mag­i­cal AV pat­tern­ing and mes­mer­ic sound­scapes with light­ing enhanc­ing all – both reveal­ing and hid­ing.

Le Taua o le Pepeve’a at College of Creative Arts

In the 16th Cen­tu­ry, the Pepeve’a, a king­ly Samoan fine mat was bestowed to Fonoti by his father, launch­ing sib­ling rival­ry and a war over titles and the king­ship. Fonoti was suc­cess­ful, became king, and the bat­tle was known as “Le Taua o le Pepeve’a”.

Writ­ten by Fonoti Pati Uma­ga, this new music work is a nod to his her­itage and the par­al­lels with Fonoti’s own bat­tles as a dis­abled Samoan musi­cian advo­cat­ing through the arts, for his beloved Pacif­ic dis­abil­i­ty com­mu­ni­ty.

Carve-Va: cypher series at BATS Theatre

A phys­i­cal talanoa (exchange) between Street Style dancers while Kava is being served in the space – all are wel­come to drink. With cer­e­mo­ny being embod­ied in tra­di­tion and in body, the ‘Carve-Va: cypher series’ invites audi­ences in to wit­ness and feel the free-style phys­i­cal offer­ings and talanoa between the Street Style dance artists, their body mem­o­ry archive, our col­lec­tive cer­e­monies and the Va that holds us all.

Breakfast With Hades at Te Whaea

World Pre­miere #break­fast­with­hades

This is an album launch. But not as you know it.

With the release of her debut album Break­fast With Hades, up-and-com­ing musi­cian MAA is emerg­ing from her makeshift, mul­ti-pur­pose bed­room stu­dio to share some tunes with you all.

A one night only show, fea­tur­ing a com­pi­la­tion of var­i­ous art forms includ­ing dance & design, this is the launch of Break­fast With Hades.

Note: This is not a rave. Do not pre-load as you might fall asleep or cry uncon­trol­lably.

Break­fast With Hades fea­tures loud music & coarse lan­guage.