Kia Mau Festival

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Kia Mau
GenreMāori, Pasifika and indigenous performing arts
Frequencyannual until 2018, now biennial
Location(s)
Wellington region
CountryNew Zealand
Established2015
Websitehttps://kiamaufestival.org/

The Kia Mau Festival, previously called Ahi Kaa Festival, is a biennial performing arts festival in Wellington, New Zealand. In te reo Māori, kia mau is "a call to stay - an invitation to join us".[1]

The festival covers Māori, Pasifika and Indigenous performing arts, including comedy, music, dance and theatre, across a variety of venues around the Wellington area.

image of building with red, black and white brick work, windows and details
Circa Theatre, Wellington

Background

The Kia Mau Festival was founded by playwright

protest land march of 1975.[7]
The Kia Mau Festival programmed a tribute to Hapipi after he died in 2016.

The Matariki festival developed over time to include presentations of plays as well as workshops with playwrights and hūi / meetings about Māori theatre. In 2010 and 2011 the Matariki Development Festival hosted First Nation writer, director and dramaturg Yvette Nolan from Canada.[8] In 2014 the festival included productions of plays and included Hīkoi by Nancy Brunning and 2080 by Aroha White being staged alongside rehearsed performances of Bless the Child by Hone Kouka and Ships by Moana Ete. The Matariki Development Season in 2014 was two weeks in duration.[9][10] Tanea Heke and Mitch Tawhi Thomas summarising their thoughts about the Kia Mau Festival in 2019 articulated that the struggles and environment is the same through the work in the festival but it is different in the various works and how this creates a collective voice that was apparent from an indigenous artists' perspective.[11]

As well as Māori and Pasifika led performances the festival has grown to include international artists, 'including indigenous and First Nations people from Canada, Hawai’i and Australia'.[4]

As Māori, we are kaitiaki and one of the ways that we look at that is to create spaces for voices and communities you don’t hear, so we’ve also had Sri Lankan Tamil works, Cambodian works, works from Laos coming through as well. (Hone Kouka 2023)[4]

The Kia Mau Festival leadership team is Dolina Wehipeihana, Mīria George and Hone Kouka.[12]

glowing sign that says vertically BATS and wooden floors inside the foyer looking down a corridor
BATS Theatre

2015 Festival

The first Ahi Kaa Festival featured six productions over three weeks, by six Māori companies: White Face Crew, Tawata Productions, Hāpai Productions,

Te Papa. Productions included Manny Pacquiao of Timberlea by Natano Keni and The Beautiful Ones by Hone Kouka.[3]

2016 Festival

The 2016 Kia Mau Festival ran from 7–25 June and included eight productions across three weeks.

Te Papa.[1]

close up head shot of a smiling young man with dark curly hair and a moustache
Rore Hapipi / Rowley Habib 1969

2017 Festival

The 2017 Kia Mau Festival ran from 2–24 June, and included a tribute to playwright Rore Hapipi, who died in 2016, called Portrait of an Artist Mongrel produced by Hāpai Productions (Nancy Brunning and Tanea Heke) that included theatre artists old, Jim Moriarty, Mitch Tawhi Thomas and young, Trae Te Wiki and Moana Ete.[14][15][16]

two stry concrete builign with metal angled roof. feels squat and is a brutalist style of architecture. bus trolley wires in the foreground over the street
The Hannah Playhouse / Downstage Theatre

2018 Festival

The 2018 Kia Mau festival was held 1–16 June.[17] It included an all-female production of Hone Kouka's play Waiora – The Homeland by Wahine Works at the Hannah Playhouse.[18]

2019 Festival

At the 2019 Kia Mau Festival was Pakarū written by Mitch Tawhi Thomas about a solo mum raising teenagers in New Zealand produced by Hāpai Productions.[19][20]

2021 Festival

The 2021 festival, from 4–19 June, featured more than 100 events across three weekends.[21] Highlights included the world premieres of All I See by Cian Parker, and Daughter by Teremoana Rapley. There was also a production of The Mourning After, written and directed by Ahi Karunaharan. Nancy Brunning who died in 2019, had her last work presented which is her play Witi’s Wāhine, a tribute to the women in the writing of well-know Māori author Witi Ihimaera.[21][22]

2023 Festival

Some of the performances in the 2023 festival are Flames a hiphop musical by Reon Bell, Roy Iro and Sean Rivera, O le Pepelo, Le Gaoi Ma Le Pala’ai – The Liar, the Thief and the Coward co-written by Natano Keni and Sarita So.[4] At the Michael Fowler Centre was Avaiki Nui Social, about the string band music of the Cook Islands that go back to the 1940s. The concert featured musicians from across the 15 islands of the Cook Islands. [23][24]

At the Hannah Playhouse was Arawhata a Wellington Ball culture show described by reviewer Lyne Pringle as an inspiration show with distinct Māori and Pasifika movement merging hip hop, siva and 'supersonic swirling poi' as well as Ballroom moves such as dipping.[25][26] Kōpū was also at the Hannah Playhouse, produced by Auckland theatre companies Te Rehia and Te Pou.[27]

Kōpū takes the audience on a journey through life, snippets of core memories that are shared within Māori wāhine’s lives. (Mārie Jones 2023)[27]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Kia Mau Festival 2016". The Big Idea. 5 May 2016. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Kia Mau Festival 2021 | Kaupapa". Kia Mau Festival. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  3. ^
    OCLC 951440720. Archived from the original on 18 October 2021. Retrieved 5 June 2021.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  4. ^ a b c d Brooks, Sam (7 June 2023). "'Wellington is painted in brown': Inside NZ's biggest indigenous arts festival". The Spinoff. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  5. OCLC 864712401. Archived from the original on 12 June 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2021.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  6. ISSN 2463-7343
    .
  7. ^ Hapipi, Rore (2008). "As It Was". Playmarket News. 42: 11.
  8. ISSN 2463-7343
    .
  9. ^ "Matariki Development Festival 2014 23 June – 5 July Celebrating Matariki". Theatre View. Archived from the original on 5 June 2021. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
  10. ^ "Hīkoi: driving change and challenging perceptions". Circa Theatre. Archived from the original on 5 June 2021. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
  11. ISSN 1179-9676
    .
  12. ^ "Kia Mau Festival". Only NZ. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  13. ^ "Bold Theatre. Fresh Dance. Mana Māori. Kia Mau". Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  14. ^ "Diverse collection of local artists join line-up for Kia Mau Festival". www.creativenz.govt.nz. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  15. ^ "Complete Lineup for Kia Mau Festival Revealed". www.scoop.co.nz. 6 June 2017. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  16. ^ Adam, Goodall (20 December 2017). "Reasons To Leave The House: Ten Moments In Wellington Theatre 2017". Pantograph Punch. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
  17. ^ "Kia Mau Festival 2018". www.scoop.co.nz. 5 May 2018. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  18. ^ "Kia Mau Festival 2018". www.scoop.co.nz. 17 May 2018. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  19. ^ Parsnip, Josephine. "Everyday Aroha: A Review of Pakaru". Pantograph Punch. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
  20. ^ Smythe, John (5 June 2019). "PAKARU - A riveting, powerful and intensely moving experience". TheatreView. Archived from the original on 5 June 2021. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
  21. ^ a b "Indigenous artistry spotlighted in Kia Mau festival". Stuff. 28 May 2021. Archived from the original on 31 May 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  22. ^ "Witi's Wāhine – A theatrical taonga that deserves long life". Theatre View. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  23. ^ Fulford, Nancy (12 June 2023). "'Avaiki Nui Social". Theatreview. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  24. ^ "Pacific creative talent on show at Kia Mau Festival". Ministry for Pacific Peoples.
  25. ^ "Arawhata". Theatreview. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  26. ^ "ARAWHATA". NZ Fringe Festival. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
  27. ^ a b "Kōpū". Theatreview. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kia_Mau_Festival&oldid=1177459560"