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National | Te Waka Toi Awards

Wehipeihana humbled by winning Ngā Tohu Hautūtanga Auaha Toi at Te Waka Toi Awards

Over the weekend Creative New Zealand awarded its annual Te Waka Toi Awards to 14 Māori artists, who were recognised for their artistic excellence, achievement and contribution.

This year's award winners include Dame Hinewehi Mohi, Rawiri Paratene and choreographer, dancer and theatre producer Dolina Wehipeihana (Ngāti Tukorehe, Ngāti Raukawa)t Te Ao Tapatahi talked to Wehipeihana today.

She said winning the Ngā Tohu Hautūtanga Auaha Toi / Making A Difference Award was amazing and she was also incredibly grateful for her collaboration with friends and colleagues over the years.

[I’m] humbled to be among the many recipients of the awards, especially Rawiri Paratene who won the supreme award this year. It’s really amazing and I’m grateful to Creative New Zealand and Te Waka Toi Awards for their uplifting of the mana of arts in this country.”

Wehipeihana’s move from performer to behind the scenes as a producer in the Māori theatre arena was a change that she describes as “a necessity”.

“When we founded Atamira Dance Company, very shortly afterwards the organiser of that rōpū went across to do an O.E and study dance further in Europe. So someone had to pick up the baton of how we were going to make this happen.

Covid hurt theatre

“Then I just found that it was a very similar practice to dance. I was very often working with choreographers to enable them to express their vision through dance, and then I just applied a very different set of skills; budgeting, fundraising, organising to that practice.

“About 10 years into producing for dance, I was working with some incredible playwrights, such as Kirk Torrance, Jason Te Kare and Te Puea Hansen, and my passion and interest for Māori storytelling drew me across from dance into being able to work and produce in theatre.”

The Covid-19 pandemic hasn’t been to kind to Māori theatre or the entire theatre industry, along with hospitality and tourism, the other sectors which have taken the brunt of the pandemic with the differing Red Light traffic settings of no outdoor limits and indoor limits still capped.

“It’s a time, at the moment, for consolidating how we use this time. There’s a lot of new work and development and capability building. We have our Māori production skills course coming up this year, producer internship courses and different ways to build and keep people in the industry.

“But Māori theatre, as a whole, is growing, it’s diversifying. There’s now online theatre, people are making digital theatre, Māori cabaret, kapa haka musicals, so it’s a very exciting time.”