New Zealand’s only con­tem­por­ary indi­gen­ous theatre and dance event Kia Mau Fest­iv­al returns to Wel­ling­ton from Fri­day 2 – Sat­urday 24 June. It’s a unique and innov­at­ive oppor­tun­ity for whānau and com­munit­ies across the Wel­ling­ton region to engage with today’s tangata when­ua and First Nations artists from across the globe.

Led by Wellington’s own Māori and Pasi­fika theatre and dance com­pan­ies, the per­formers will chal­lenge the idea of what Māori, Pasi­fika and Indi­gen­ous theatre and dance is. There are 14 events across three glor­i­ous weeks in ven­ues across the region from Pori­rua City to Wel­ling­ton City to Upper Hutt City.

Along­side the Kia Mau Fest­iv­al is Break­ing Ground (formerly known as the Matariki Devel­op­ment Fest­iv­al) A vital devel­op­ment fest­iv­al that will work­shop and test new ideas and stor­ies with­in a mana Māori, mana Pasi­fika kaupapa.

Week one starts with Tiki Taane Mahuta. ​Live music, theatre, aer­i­al per­form­ance, con­tem­por­ary dance, kapa haka, mau rākau and hip hop are used to depict two gen­er­a­tions of New Zea­l­and fam­il­ies and the tragedy, hope and redemp­tion which con­nect them. Sounds amaz­ing right? It’s sold out. If, like me, you’re now kick­ing your­self, make sure you book tick­ets to the oth­er shows!

Fire In The Water, Fire In The Sky

Told through move­ment, dance and text, this is a mod­ern state­ment on cli­mate change, col­on­isa­tion and Chris­tian­ity across the Pacific Rim. It’s an untangling of the greatest col­li­sion to have affected Te Moana-nui-a-kiva – west­ern imper­i­al­ism.

  • Vari­ous per­form­ance times dur­ing the morn­ing at Pataka Art + Museum, Pori­rua 6–10 June 2017, then Te Papa Tongare­wa 13 – 17 June. Per­form­ances are free to watch.

Por­trait of an artist mon­grel 

Self pro­claimed young mon­grel, poet and play­wright, Row­ley Habib, will be remembered one year after his passing in a present­a­tion of his works. His char­ac­ters chal­lenge the status quo, struggle with isol­a­tion from their tri­bal lands, fight for the right to access their lan­guage and cul­tur­al her­it­age or dis­card the Māori way of life com­pletely.

  • On at BATS Theatre 6 & 7 June 2017

NeoIndi­genA

The time­less, intense and tran­scend­ent solo ritu­al cre­ated and per­formed by Santee Smith, it hon­ours land and fem­in­ine body as sac­red, cere­mo­ni­al prac­tices and is both ancient and present. A phys­ic­al mara­thon, Santee is an artist in her full power, unleash­ing a wild, fra­gile, potent per­form­ance that draws inspir­a­tion from her Onkwehon:we (Iroquois) way of being

  • On at BATS Theatre 6–10 June 2017

Lick my past

Play­ful and exuber­ant Nancy and Kelly don’t take take them­selves too ser­i­ously now  that their long stress­ful dance careers are a mat­ter of choice.  It’s sur­pris­ing just how strange and funny these two Maori and Pakeha wahine’s lives can be as they slip between both as friends and foe.

  • On at BATS Theatre 7–10 June 2017

Gath­er­ing clouds

In pre­par­a­tion for the com­ing of Cap­tain Cook’s cel­eb­ra­tions, three pacific artists work­shop their concept of the storm of col­on­isa­tion across the Pacific, and the dev­ast­a­tion left in its path. NZ Slam Poet Cham­pi­on Te Kahu Rolle­ston, Young NZ of the Year Jahra Was­as­ala and Inter­na­tion­al Fringe per­former James Nokise, com­bine their tal­ents for a new, exper­i­ment­al, piece look­ing at colonialism’s toll on the Pacific.

  • On at BATS Theatre 7–10 June 2017

Friday’s flock

Inspired by the stor­ies and per­son­al­it­ies of the rur­al com­munity and filled with kiwi humour. Reihana Har­onga plays all 7 char­ac­ters, ran­ging from farm dog to farm­er to farm wife, with skil­ful tim­ing and pre­ci­sion char­ac­ter­isa­tion.

  • On at BATS Theatre 8–10 June 2017

River­side Kings

A story inspired by the sub­urb of Tim­ber­lea, Upper Hutt. Peni a newly retired box­er receives the call to come home. He is reunited with  Salaki, his young­er and dir­ec­tion­less broth­er who has remained at home.  Peni finds that time has changed Tim­ber­lea as much as life has changed them. With ques­tions, memor­ies and unfin­ished words in the air, expect­ing the whole of Sam­oa for Christ­mas, will they move for­ward and cre­ate new tra­di­tions and memor­ies to last?

  • On at Expres­sions Whir­inaki, Upper Hutt 9 June 2017, then at BATS Theatre 13–17 June 2017.

 

Week two

This is what it looks like

Room a mess, in her bed, unshowered, sits Di. Alone. Except for her radio and her phone, neither of which she likes very much right now. Mean­while, fol­low­ing the dis­ap­pear­ance of her Uncle, Eri is determ­ined to find him. Fear­less in the com­pany of a flower she named Ahor­angi, 9‑yr old Eri sets off on a jour­ney into the forest. But let’s not beat around the bush. This is def­in­itely, without a doubt, a show about depres­sion. If that word puts you off, maybe you should come watch it – it’s funny and stuff. And Finn will be there…

  • On at BATS Theatre 14–17 June 2017

Man­aia

A short works pro­gramme by Atamira Dance Com­pany show­cas­ing the strong female cho­reo­graph­ic voice from with­in the com­pany. Pito by Nancy Wijohn explores themes around mater­nal con­nec­tion, and attempts to uncov­er mean­ings of loss, aban­don­ment and pain to find light, enlight­en­ment and love. Te Waenganui by Gab­ri­elle Thomas explores the three fin­gers of the man­aia – birth, life, and death – and the space between, known as Te Waenganui. Kelly Nash presents Mā, a reframed and recon­tex­tu­al­ised look at the myth of demi­god Maui and his efforts to gain etern­al life by exploit­ing the god­dess Hine Nui Te Po.

  • On at the Han­nah Play­house 14–20 June 2017

The Maori sidesteps 

The new­est and naugh­ti­est Maori Show­band on the Aotearoa enter­tain­ment scene the Sidesteps turn some of your favour­ite songs on their head in a mix of satir­ic­al skits and croon­ing good­ness.

  • On at BATS Theatre 15–17 June 2017

Purple Onion

Peeps into the world of Wellington’s infam­ous bur­lesque par­lour, the Purple Onion.  Estab­lished in the mid 1960s, the Purple Onion was Wellington’s premiere strip club which attrac­ted some of New Zealand’s social elite as well as its fair share of dubi­ous char­ac­ters. Com­bin­ing text, dance and a live funk band, the show acknow­ledges the sig­ni­fic­ant his­tor­ic­al con­tri­bu­tions of the les­bi­an, gay, trans and queer com­munit­ies to the Purple Onion as well as the social night life of Wel­ling­ton City dur­ing the 1960s and 70s.

  • On at the Han­nah Play­house 16 & 17 June 2017

Mata and the Mys­ter­i­ous Music­al Maunga

An Aotearoa music­al adven­ture as 10-year-old Mata jour­neys to a mys­ter­i­ous maunga to seek an ancient kōauau. Being guided by ngā manu and wai­ata, Mata faces dan­ger­ous chal­lenges and encoun­ters quirky and charm­ing char­ac­ters who help him on his way

  • Free per­form­ance at Te Papa Tongare­wa 17 June 2017

 

Week three

The Moon­cake and the Kūmara

Nearly ninety years ago on a New Zea­l­and mar­ket garden, two fam­il­ies, one Māori and the oth­er Chinese, became part of a romance that would uproot their lives over gen­er­a­tions.

Layered with myth and fable, The Moon­cake and the Kūmara is a mov­ing story about a mixed-up, Māori-Chinese love affair that sprouts among rows of pota­toes. Told in a rich mix­ture of Eng­lish, Māori and Cantonese, The Moon­cake and the Kūmara is the debut, award-win­ning play by Māori-Chinese play­wright Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen.

  • On at the Han­nah Play­house 21–24 June 2017.