Press Release – Kia Mau Festival
Ka mihi ki ngā uri o te rohe nei, rātou e noho ana ki runga i te whenua o Te Ūpoko o Te Ika a Māui!
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangarangatanga maha o ngā hau e whā! Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

01-15 June 2019 sees two weeks full of theatre and dance performed in Wellington by Māori, Pasifika, and Indigenous artists and companies from across Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa and around the globe.

Te Ūpoko o Te Ika a Māui – the head of the fish of Māui – Wellington is known for the strength of Tāwhirimātea, the God of the Winds, and it is the home and heart of Kia Mau Festival.

“Kia Mau Festival is a celebratory call to action, uplifting the voices and visibility of Māori, Pasifika and global Indigenous artists. With a Tangata Whenua worldview placed at its very centre, Kia Mau Festival is a gesture of creative sovereignty. Festival artists strive to lead us forward and carry audiences to experience new ways of being.”

Hone Kouka MNZM,
Artistic Director, Kia Mau Festival

Created and helmed by senior artist Hone Kouka, Kia Mau Festival places artists at the centre of the festival’s vision. The festival is an innovative experience for whānau and communities of the Wellington region and beyond, to engage with tangata whenua and international Indigenous artists from across Papatūānuku.

Established in 2015, five years on we are celebrating our biggest festival yet with 17 Māori, Pasifika and Indigenous companiespresenting theatre and dance across Te Whanganui-a-Tara region.

It’s our privilege to announce the first release of the Kia Mau Festival 2019 programme. The five companies included here are manuhiri to Wellington, with Sydney based Moogahlin Performing Arts and Montreal based Lara Kramer Danse amongst the festival’s international guests.

Shel We? – Those Guys
Tāmaki Makaurau
01 – 02 June
HANNAH PLAYHOUSE, 12 CAMBRIDGE TCE, WELLINGTON
An enchanting, playfully intriguing and visually stunning dance show inspired by the works of renowned American writer Sheldon ‘Shel’ Silverstein – famous for children’s story The Giving Tree and penning the ballad A Boy Named Sue for Johnny Cash. Shel’s off beat style and brilliant use of metaphorical imagery in his poetry and sketches is cleverly captured and celebrated in Tupua Tigafua’s fresh choreography.

I Ain’t Mad At Cha – Waitī Productions
Rotorua
01 – 02 June
TE AUAHA, 65 DIXON STREET, WELLINGTON
Waitī Productions presents multi-award winning rap musical I Ain’t Mad At Cha by Turene Jones, produced by Cian Elyse White. So, it’s 1999 and Kiwa is struggling with the whole “being Māori” thing. Kiwa’s done with being judged – worst of all by his own people. How come black American fullas who live 20,000km away make him feel more at home than his own people do?
I Ain’t Mad At Cha is about a young Māori boy’s affinity with rhymes.

Pōhutu – Bianca Hyslop in collaboration with Rowan Pierce
Tāmaki Makaurau
06 – 08 June
HANNAH PLAYHOUSE, 12 CAMBRIDGE TCE, WELLINGTON
Bianca’s grandmother Rāmari Rangiwhiua Morrison was born in Te Whakarewarewatanga-o-te-ope-tauā-ā-Wāhiao, Rotorua. Now at the age of 88, she has Alzheimers. Pōhutu draws parallels between her shapeshifting mind and the restless landscape ofWhakarewarewa; the whenua she was born from and will return to. The work manifests connection to memory, time, place and loss.Pōhutu is a world premiere not to be missed.

The Weekend – Moogahlin Performing Arts
Sydney, Australia
11-15 JUNE
BATS THEATRE, 1 KENT TERRACE, WELLINGTON
Lara has only the weekend to track down her partner as she traverses the world of public housing, drug dealing, and addiction. The Weekend is an emotional ride of laughter and hope, love and loss, and a young family’s search for a new beginning.
Presented by Moogahlin Performing Arts, this show by first-time Sydney playwright Henrietta Baird follows one woman embodying ten characters across 90 minutes, hurtling the audience through the streets and public housing towers of Redfern-Waterloo.
The Weekend made its world premiere at Sydney Festival 2019. Kia Mau Festival 2019 marks the New Zealand premiere of this acclaimed solo show.

Windigo – Lara Kramer Danse
Montreal, Canada
11 – 15 June
BATS THEATRE, 1 KENT TCE, WELLINGTON
Fierce and visceral dance work, Windigo resonates like a scream, the vibrant echo of a long history of human ransacking and destruction, a violation of a land and its culture. A northern epic with the air of a post- apocalyptic ballad, Windigo exorcises the demons and undercurrents of the violence perpetrated against Indigenous peoples.
For more information and tickets go to https://kiamaufestival.org/

Artists, whānau, friends, communities, and audiences are invited to join us as we mark the 5th year of Kia Mau Festival in Wellington.

“vital and exciting… perhaps the country’s best annual celebration of theatre” – Pantograph Punch

https://kiamaufestival.org/
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram – @KiaMauFestival

Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
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