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National | Mana Wahine

New play uplifting wāhine Māori set to premiere

Witi’s Wāhine will star actresses Mere Boynton, Roimata Fox, Ani-Piki Tuari and Ngapaki Moetara.  Photo/Strike Photography

A show paying tribute to wāhine toa is set to open the Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival in October.

The play Witi's Wāhine has been produced by Nancy Brunning, of Ngāti Raukawa and Ngai Tuhoe, and will star actresses including Mere Boynton, Roimata Fox, Ani-Piki Tuari and Ngapaki Moetara.

The show is based on excerpts from stories by novelist Witi Ihimaera, who was believed to have been the first Māori writer to publish both a novel and a book of short stories.

Brunning says Witi's Wāhine awakens some of Ihimaera's powerful and poignant wāhine Māori characters from some of his most popular novels and stories, including Parihaka Woman, Medicine Woman and Waituhi.

“Witi has always acknowledged the women in his life are the reason he had stories to tell,” says Brunning.

Empowering wāhine

Brunning says the usual treatment of wāhine Māori, particularly on screen, is to make them secondary characters. Instead, this play offers a wero to other playwrights, storytellers and filmmakers to uplift Māori women in their stories.

“Wāhine Māori are often dumbed down for the screen and many have their stories altered or diminished in order to bring the male characters into the spotlight. They are portrayed as leaders by default rather than by design," she says.

“They are the love interest, not the hero; the support role, not the lead; the victim, not the instigator; the destroyer, not the nurturer; or are so sacred they are inaccessible.”

She says young women need honest role models and support in navigating the complex, raw and real messages they have been given about wāhine Māori.

“This play is about bringing forward wāhine and offering a chance for young women to come face to face with wāhine Māori performers presenting a wāhine Māori worldview.”

The play presents a group of women who come from Te Tairāwhiti, each with unique characteristics and qualities.  They step in and out of the written-world, while making real-time commentary on the context of each of the written characters and their real-life inspiration.

Photo/Strike Photography

Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival

Produced by Hapai Productions, with the blessing, support and guidance of Witi Ihimaera and his whānau, the play will be a jewel in the crown of New Zealand's newest arts festival, Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival.

Festival director Tama Waipara says, “This is a world premiere which honours a son of Te Tairāwhiti and the women whose lives and stories he has brought to life in award-winning books, plays and films.”

From October 4 to 20, the festival will deliver more than 70 live performance events by over 400 performers from around the world.