Presen­ted by Tuatara Col­lect­ive, HINE-TE-RĒHIA is a mul­ti­lin­gual theatre exper­i­ence com­ing to BATS Theatre in July. Devised, cre­ated and per­formed by an all-female BIPOC cast, this excit­ing show prom­ises to leave you gasp­ing in awe of their tal­ent.

I had the chance to inter­view Jason Te Mete (pre­vi­ous deviser/director), Tāwera Ormsby (co-Kaiwhaka­haere of Tuatara Col­lect­ive) and Tia Ormsby (per­former). Have a read of my inter­view, and make sure you get along to the show from July 9th!

EM: Tell us about HINE-TE-RĒHIA in your own words!

TIA: HINE-TE-RĒHIA’s about a group of wāhine toa from dif­fer­ent indi­gen­ous whakapapa telling stor­ies that need to be told through move­ment, song and spoken word.

EM: Devis­ing pro­cesses in theatre dif­fer between artists – what did the cre­ation & build­ing of HINE-TE-RĒHIA look like for you?

JT: We began the cre­ation and devel­op­ment pro­cess of HINE-TE-RĒHIA in 2020, which meant work­ing around and through the chal­lenges caused by COVID-19.

Ini­tially, there was a lot of mahi done on Zoom where the found­a­tions were built, char­ac­ters developed, and storylines explored. The act­ors chose an indi­vidu­al col­our, and a god­dess (from any cul­ture) to anchor their research, and find con­nec­tions and align­ments with the kaupapa and each oth­er.

The act­ors were able to weave their own nar­rat­ives into the char­ac­ter­iz­a­tions to tackle sub­ject mat­ter that mattered to them, using many dif­fer­ent medi­ums like move­ment and voice, as well as oth­er art­forms includ­ing writ­ing – poetry, prose and oth­er scripts.

EM: Your show fea­tures six young wāhine. What’s it like mak­ing theatre with (and to some extent for) ran­gi­tahi? 

TIA: For me, really ful­filling.  It’s not often us ranga­tahi are giv­en the space for our voices to be heard, so it’s empower­ing to put ourselves into this work, and share whatever it is we need to say.  HINE-TE-RĒHIA to me is like filling the gaps that have been wait­ing for rep­res­ent­a­tion of ranga­tahi, kōhine and tangata when­ua. I also feel like HINE-TE-RĒHIA helps weave togeth­er all wāhine and mareikura, like one big girl­hood exper­i­ence.

EM: A “mul­ti­lin­gual theatre exper­i­ence that fea­tures singing, dance, haka and authen­t­ic storytelling through poetry and ori­gin­al mono­logues,” is no small feat to cre­ate. What have you found chal­len­ging while mak­ing this work?

JT: Our ranga­tahi have tal­ent com­ing out of their ears. Tal­ent galore, and it is glor­i­ous. The biggest chal­lenge in my opin­ion is find­ing and sus­tain­ing adequate fund­ing to be able to provide these plat­forms for our young and vibrant ranga­tahi to speak their truth. They are the voices of our future, and we need to enable and help them cre­ate new legends, which in most cases involves chan­ging the nar­rat­ives to place them at the centre, where they can see them­selves as the hero, and as atua.

EM: As a theatre­maker, I know how chal­len­ging it can be to main­tain good men­tal health in an industry that is this change­able, so the work you’re doing in that space is very import­ant. Tell us more about the Rātā Ini­ti­at­ive.

JT/TO: We acknow­ledge that shar­ing stor­ies about our men­tal health and well­being can be thera­peut­ic and cath­artic exper­i­ences for artists and audi­ences alike, so we act­ively seek to hold space for those stor­ies to be told safely. Through our Rātā Ini­ti­at­ive we engage health pro­fes­sion­als to work along­side and/or col­lab­or­ate with us, and bring their know­ledge and expert­ise to each pro­ject ensur­ing the cast, crew and audi­ences are held with com­pas­sion and secur­ity. This allows them to feel safe whilst exper­i­en­cing the stor­ies being shared at all times.

EM: Is there any­thing you’d like to add about your upcom­ing show?

TĀWERA: These wāhine are con­nec­ted to the world in a way that older gen­er­a­tions are con­stantly catch­ing up to under­stand. The themes in HINE-TE-RĒHIA are per­son­al, cel­eb­rat­ory, pro­voc­at­ive and polit­ic­al, with a com­mon thread/lens of inclus­iv­ity and indi­geneity.

The con­tin­ued and ramped up gen­o­cide of the indi­gen­ous Palestini­an people has ignited dis­ap­point­ment and heart­break among these wāhine, lead­ing to a Palestini­an acknow­ledge­ment piece being added to this sea­son.

The show also addresses cli­mate change, women’s rights – espe­cially around their bod­ies and con­sent, miso­gyny, sexu­al harm and trauma, and racism and the lay­ers of intergen­er­a­tion­al trauma caused by col­on­isa­tion.

HINE-TE-RĒHIA is being per­formed at BATS Theatre in Pōneke/Wellington 9–13th July at 6.30pm. Tick­ets range from $15-$40. Get yours here.