Matariki 2010

Matariki began for me with a Hikoi, a properly organized tour of the Rangitaane area with Paul Hortom the guide. We started in Awapuni. There we looked at old Pa sites in the lowland area.

We went to Ashurst. While Paul was telling us about Apiti a kereru came into a nearby tree and observed proceedings. It was a magical time.

We went to the karaka groves near the university. There we saw some kai that would be used in the forthcoming Rangitaane Wildfood Festival.

And then, after a bit of a kotiti, taking in a lot of information from Paul and others who contributed we came back to base, to Awapuni.

That night we all stayed at Tuturu Pumau the meeting house at Rangitaane Pa Awapuni. We practiced waka ama work indoors getting ready for an expedition or an exercise on a waka at Tangimoana the next day.

Then there was the predawn ceremony welcoming in Matariki before the haangi was lifted. And then a round of korero. And then, the haangi lifted, breakfast.

My next matariki experience was the Seven Sisters concert at Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington. The marae area was packed out for this. There was a range of singers from Lily Tomlin to Ria Hall.

Many of the songs were originals and they were well constructed. Several singers had good backing from the likes of Puawai Cairns on guitar. The concert looked good with Puawai wearing a white tie on a black shirt. She backed Ria Hall in what seemed to be the most popular set.

Kali Kopae impressed with her set backed by James Macgaskill on bass. Bella Kalolo was also impressive with an organist behind her vocal. With Ramon Re Wake and the Compere considered this was a very even display of high quality and the Matariki Seasons at Te Papa that also involve a Seven Brothers Concert are exceptional.

And then it was on to Koowhiti; Matariki Festival of Contemporary Dance. This was on June 24-27/2010 at Te Papa Tongarewa

It was the show of shows. A comprehensive display of dance, Maori dance at Te Papa. It featured a Hakari, a Dinner at Icon the dining complex at Te Papa Tongarewa and this was remarkable for the dignitaries there. Senior politicians, High Court judges, Kerry Prendergast, the Mayor of Wellington, sundry MPs and lawyers.

Brendon Pongia of morning television was the Master of Ceremonies for the meal and he got us all down to earth with a lot of patter about Dancing with the stars. I was proud to put my hand up when Brendon asked who watched Dancing with the stars. This sorted the audience out. Here was an audience of Wellington High Culture. Lowbrows like me were in the distinct minority. But Brendon was the perfect foil, dancer and sportsman, introducing Toni Huata for some powerful waiata and getting everyone ready for the show itself, Koowhiti and the presentation of awards to follow.

And then, with a bit of a hurry-up from MC Pongia over the dessert, we all moved from the banquet room to a theatre at Te Papa for the show.

Koowhiti means to pull out or to select. It can be used to say something like, ‘the kumara were pulled out of the garden’. It also has the secondary meaning of the appearance of a new moon and there is an interesting usage with a replication of whiti in koowhitiwhiti which refers to a leaping or dancing of water.
But Koowhiti, for those who attended will always mean the performance or a set of dance performances at Te Papa Tongarewa during Te Matariki. Some of these were excerpts from earlier shows and others were new shows. There were strong similarities amongst the shows and there were differences as well. Koowhiti then was a set of shows shifting in shape like dancing water in a fountain.

Stage management was well done without fuss or fanfare by Cathy Knowsley and her crew. Lisa Maule provided very effective lighting. It all ran like clockwork and like the food at the hakari it was both elegant and sustaining as background for the performances.

Cat Ruka stood out. Dance met theatre at Koowhiti; every dance-picture told a story and hers were the best in many respects even though she did not dance much. Bare breasted, her solo dance involved props from the world of the Maori woman cigarette trapped, gang trapped, tourist trapped by toy plastic dolls, flag trapped and wrapped in a hold from which she was seriously hurt, from a warriorhood that came with the territory like a curse.

But there was much else in the show. One or two of the dancers were older but a lot were younger and they came with an open freshness, taking the lead of Tanemahuta and Merenia on stage with very clear understanding. The young ones came mainly from the Judith Fuge Dance Studio and the Commercial Dance course at the Whitireia Performing Arts Centre.

The work of Taupuhi Toki and New Native Dance was seen to effect in Paa Kingdom. And the choreography of Cathy Livermore and the Atamira Dance Company in Don’t feed the man fish took message and performance to new heights and asked new questions about things like global warming from the point of view of indigenous people.

The New Zealand School of Dance supported Merenia Gray and the Merenia Gray Dance Company in Black Rain. As well as superb dance this show had an excellent use of music and poetry ranging from the work of Hirini Melbourne and Richard Nunns to that of Hone Tuwhare.

Tanemahuta Gray used the music of Tiki Taane in his Past/Present/Future and in Tangaroa and Now this is it, keeping things current. The contemporary feel was reinforced by Future Fame appearing courtesy of Mad Fame Creative Specialists in The Inner Cosmos. This featured the music of Mr Flash and The Dorian Concept.

Merenia Gray also used poetry in Entangled, this time taking Octavio Paz’s The Sacred Fig Tree as an inspiration. Merenia cross referenced to a lot of things without losing the thread. A subtlety to be wondered at.

Some of the work went back a fair way. He Taura Whakapapa with choreography by Charles Koroneho and Te Toki Haruru came from a production by the Taiao Dance Theatre in 1990. With a theme concerning the fragility of unity the work, like all other pieces on the night posed questions that lingered.
Some of the collaboration worked extremely well, taking all kinds of risks. The support of Kid Genius Klik for Cat Ruka’s Playing Savage made for a magic combination. Playing Savage also employed the music of Chopin and Notorious BIG. The presentation carried the musical contrasts.

The way Koowhiti worked was that key performances from the past were selected with an eye on the message so that the experience of Maori over time was reflected. In Moonlight Sonata and Memoirs of Active Service dating from 2006, the Year of the Veteran, looked back to the long experience of Maori, especially Maori from remote areas in the New Zealand war machine.

Te Whenua with choreography by Moss Paterson and the Atamira Dance Company came from Whakairo of 2007. This gave Koowhiti a spiritual and mystic dimension and so connected the deep past of the Maori to Te Papa Tongarewa during Te Matariki of 2010.

Some of the work went back as it projected forward. He Taonga with choreography from Taane Mete and Taiaroa Royal and the Okareka Dance Company came from a Graduation ceremony for the New Zealand School of Dance season in 2009. This interesting work is being extended for a production in 2011.

And this was the way of the show. It looked forward as well as to the past with no holds barred, no prisoners taken and no boundaries to hem people in. And Koowhiti was made for the present. It worked in the here and now, each dance show tugging at the audience with its own immediacy.

It is to be hoped that this trio, Tanemahuta and Merenia Gray and Jenny Stevenson work together again. They are good enough as individuals; Tanemahuta pushing the envelope, Merenia creatively organizing as she reaches out to art and literature and Jenny advising and teaching. Put together they appeal immensely.

And they carry weight.

Tanemahuta and Merenia bring the whanau and what a whanau it is. There are dance connections stretching out into the world and back to the Kapiti coast. Tanemahuata had recently returned from his involvement with the New Zealand Expo in China. He and Merenia had managed with Jenny to get many dancers of different types together but the show hummed rather than grated- you weren’t sure what kind of dance you would see next but that was of no bother, it was the way of the koowhitiwhiti, the way the fountain played.

And Jenny Stevenson brought her husband Jim to Koowhiti. Jim is mentioned in the Koowhiti Programme, he is a quiet mentor, a restrained consigliere of the arts, especially dance in Wellington, a patron who knows how to make things happen and walk softly.

Each piece was an exploration with Tanemahuta Gray himself pulling out the stops, pulling back from working with Jackie Chan at the Shanghai Expo and down from aerial stuff for the night, mentoring, talking up things with his body. And that was the way of the night; all performers used their bodies to say something. It was the most open expression I’ve seen for a while, anywhere in the world. Merenia was there throughout, smoothing out the wrinkles and in every corner there was Jenny Stevenson, a mind of dance.

And then it was on to the presentation of awards. These were for contributions over a lifetime to Maori contemporary dance. And here the lifetimes were shown. Gaylene Sciascia, Tama Huata, Stephen Bradshaw, figures of a lifetime in dance. The awards were presented by the dignitaries; the Mayor of Wellington and Gregory Fortuin of the Whitireia Council and ex Race Relations Conciliator. All introduced by the indefatigably fresh Brendon Pongia, himself one of a formidable range of Maori dignitaries in attendance.

In 1977 at Rongomaraeroa marae at Porangahau Gaylene Sciascia was part of a hui for Maori dancers. In Gaylene’s lifetime of contribution dance courses have been started at places like Whitireia Polytechnic, a production called Moko was choreographed by her and then taken to China with the New Zealand Ballet Company and she is presently taking a dance group on a tour of Croatia, Slovenia and Germany.

From 1983 Tama Huata has contributed in many ways to Maori Contemporary dance and with his role as Chairman of Te Matatini, New Zealand’s largest performing arts festival, there is an important connection to kapa haka and traditional Maori dance. He is the founder and CEO of Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre. This has 24 full-time dancers in three troupes that tour internationally. He has taken Maori dance to the world especially to North America.

The third contributor, Stephen Bradshaw has moved and shaken the world of contemporary Maori Dance since 1984. His journey has taken him from Department of Labour employment schemes involving dance in 1984 to the formation of Taiao in 1988 to the convening of a summit on contemporary Maori Dance in 2009. This summit ushered in the planning process for Koowhiti Matariki Festival of Māori Contemporary Dance in 2010.

The awards themselves came with interesting stories. Charles Koroneho had carved keys and locks and these were displayed as part of the presentations. This was yet another twist to Koowhiti, another way of entertaining and holding the attention right up there. The design concept of Toki Poutangata; lock and key was paid for by Creative New Zealand and brought sculpture to Koowhiti as Koroneho’s idea of keys to unlock the carvings were explored and shown on stage. This is all described in the handouts as;

Embodying the mana of the awards is the Toki; symbolically representing a body, a form of technical potential and precision, an expression of the highest commitment to knowledge, culture and artistic excellence. The Toki is therefore a material depiction of Maori Dance; the history, creative aspirations and cultural foundation that practitioners are collectively
working to unlock.

The concept of Poutangata is metaphorically represented by the Awards Recipient, an individual celebrated for their pursuit of excellence and unlocking the full potential of Maori Dance and Performance. Their contribution and lifelong commitment is literally cut from the body of the adze and transformed into a symbolic key, an anthropomorphic manifestation.

Dance. Lifetimes. Design Concepts. When Jenny Stevenson and Tanemahuta and Merenia Gray throw a party look at what happens as well as who turns up!

Before looking again at who showed up it was interesting who was not there. There was an uneven media presence with myself from Kia Ora FM, Palmerston North and a photographer from the Dominion-Post. I did not see anyone else from any other radio stations including National Radio or from other media like, say, The New Zealand Listener or Maori Television, TV One or Three and this is remarkable given the sheer quality of the visual and aural work and its national significance.

Fortuin was the most loquacious speaker of the night and this was, I think, because he grasped the nettle of national significance in Koowhiti. A Maori speaking South African, as well as grasping it he really articulated the shared pride in the dance from all quarters rather than knowing what we all mean as per the rest of the Kiwi Digs.

Gregory Fortuin talking about Koowhiti reminded me of Bernard Levin in the Times of London writing about Kiri Te Kanawa, the gusher helping to push the star to shining point. A pity Gregory does not have a column in the Dompost or the NBR! These curiosities and speculations aside there is no question that it was a show wanted on high, wanted by the parliamentarians, the High Court Judges and the Mayor and her Deputy, wanted as a point in Matariki, wanted for a shared celebration. The murmur of a national holiday to celebrate Te Matariki came to ear and mind.

With a quality performance and a sold out attendance the question of publicity and promotion might be put alongside another question about the lack of a substantial sponsor. Kiri Te Kanawa had Mobil Oil, Benson and Hedges and a mix of Covent Garden, Norman Kirk and, of all people HRH Prince Charles behind her. And forty or fifty years ago the world of entertainment and art was a smaller place without the internet so these things were more easily patronized and sponsored. Where is the support from corporate and government for a show like Koowhiti? It is simply not enough to have Jim Stevenson and the events people from Te Papa rallying the troops in support with Jenny, Tanemahuta and Merenia and all networking furiously to make things happen.

Aside from the quality and power of the performance the whole event including those who bought tickets to the dinner and showed up to watch poses some pretty big questions. There is something of a brow problem as in high or low brow, or something of a block problem as in a mental block with all of this. Dancing with the stars is at one end of a spectrum while the work of the New Zealand Ballet Company is at another. Kapa Haka is in one corner and works like Te Koowhiti are in another.

This difference of brows, this blockage, does not seem to apply to the people deeply involved in dance such as Tanemahuta, Merenia or Jenny or any of their dancers, But it might apply to those watching. Or not watching. The kind of turnout of Digs, Maori and Pakeha Dignitaries, at Koowhiti is not seen, at least in my experience, at Kapa Haka festivals. Nor, again in my experience at least, is the range of people attending Kowhiti seen at New Zealand Ballet performances.

There is, of course the question; what exactly is this? Modern Maori Dance? Kapa Haka? Maori Ballet? Maori Burlesque? Anything goes and to great effect as in the case of Cat Ruka. Koowhiti may not have been what Sir Apirana Ngata had in mind after the First World War when he encouraged people to join concert parties as part of an attempt to foster Maori performance that itself encouraged people to speak and sing Maori. Nor is it something greatly written about and one goes back to Jennifer Shennan’s good book, The Maori Action Song published by the NZCER in 1984 for a steer on the subject.

But whatever Koowhiti, the play of light in dance, is, it is ours, it is here and it is exciting. There is innocence about it all for us to experience like the country Aotearoa/New Zealand itself.

Coming back to the patchy media coverage of something held at the national museum a block for work like Koowhiti does seem to exist in the media. It is as though Koowhiti is a secret, something for the cognoscenti with blocks for others in the silliest of places; media and sponsorship…

But looking at it from a national or even a nationalistic basis there was a significant and telling presence, a social and political representation of who we are at Koowhiti. People like Fortuin and Prendergast, people who eventually lead opinion are exceedingly comfortable with the work as presented at Koowhiti. The question of shared national experience of the arts arises; has Koowhiti offered us something that we can all share in an unabashed way? Something fresh and clear like, to refer to her once again, Kiri Te Kanawa at the Mobil Song Quests in the sixties. The impression given by the Prendergasts and Fortuins was that Koowhiti was something that might be shared and valued by all of us. I agree.

Peter Cleave
Palmerston North
July 2010