Theatre Māori breathes life into history and whakapapa

Rangatahi worked diligently alongside practitioners from Te Rākau Theatre Marae, Aotearoa’s longest surviving independent Māori theatre company.

Actors and students from Ōtaki, Porirua and Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai transported audiences back in time with performances of The Battalion, an original production by Helen Pearse-Otene. 

The Battalion tells the story of rangatahi going off to war in the 1940s. Students involved in the project felt a connection to their characters, as the struggles of being a teenager are timeless and relevant, no matter the context.

For four months rangatahi worked diligently alongside Jim Moriarty and practitioners from Te Rākau Theatre Marae, Aotearoa’s longest surviving independent Māori theatre company. Then in October the budding young actors delivered five breathtaking performances of the play, showcasing the abundance of talent in the Kāpiti region. 

Te Rākau’s involvement with Ōtaki College and community has been a work in progress for many years and finally came to fruition in June 2022. A financial boost from Creative New Zealand allowed the school to engage in one of the theatre company’s community focused arts programmes, says drama kaiako, Tamsin Dashfield-Speight.

“Everyone seems to recognise what a unique opportunity it is to work with Jim and Te Rākau. It’s such a unique experience and it’s definitely likely they’re going to remember this for the rest of their lives.”

Te Rākau were also recipients of funding from Creative New Zealand, being granted $1.22 million from the Toi Uru Kahikatea long term funding programme which will be distributed over the next three years. 

Community engagement was an important value of both Te Rākau and the college for the roll out of the programme. They hoped to bring Aotearoa history, whakapapa, connections, and stories into Te Ao Marama – the world of light, through creative mediums and processes.

Performers check in to see where everyone’s at and how people are feeling in porowhita talking circles.

Immersion in theatre Māori

While the programme was largely undertaken and developed on Ōtaki College campus, participation was not exclusive to the college students. Students outside of Ōtaki were encouraged to join the group and immerse themselves in both the world of theatre and Māori culture, says Tamsin. 

“We opened it up to Year 9s and found that quite a few of them were really keen, and that increased the numbers. We had one or two students who just left and are coming back and doing it, and that’s really awesome. Because the whole point of this was, you know, bringing it into the community.” 

Even prior to the performances, the subject matter in The Battalion prompted conversation between rangatahi and whānau as they sought to learn more about their whakapapa and Aotearoa’s rich Māori history. 

“I just feel privileged to meet this type of energy wherever I go,” says Jim.

Rangatahi value the sense of belonging and whanaungatanga the experience has given them.

Many of the students’ first exposure to the Māori Battalion came in the production rehearsals and meetings with Te Rākau. Their genuine interest in this history pushed them to do their own research, both through kōrero with whānau and on the internet. This meant the eventual performances were articulately conveyed and immersive as they came from a wealth of knowledge and understanding. 

Tamsin witnessed the students’ dedication to the piece as she watched them rehearse during their morning and lunch breaks every day prior to the opening night. 

“They’re taking a lot of pride in their work. I think that they’re realising how demanding it is. They’ve been doing physical training, they did some military drills. One of the students here, their dad had been in the Military Police, so he came in and ran some drills. Like it’s a whole experience.

“Jim is their motivational leader and he’s got them motivated. They see his vision too and they want to make it as good as it can be.” 

Holistic experience

Before the audience filed in, Jim gathered the performers to get them in the zone. He says he was surprised so many stuck around and made it through to the opening night. 

“My job is to guide, and to try and bring everybody together at the same required rate of readiness. I can become a little bit unpopular, but everybody understands that... I think it’s the nature of the beast, but we do that together anyway.”

Performers from all year groups and from outside the college banded together to deliver the powerful performance.

They rehearsed a few dozen times and memorised their lines to each full stop, but naturally nerves were high on the opening night. To get over this the actors lost themselves in the timelines and settings. Their passionate monologues and presence struck a careful balance between engagement and full immersion. The audience weren’t passive spectators, but rather silent characters in the world of The Battalion.

Ōtaki College staff, whānau members, and Te Rākau have seen the participants grow in confidence, skill and self-awareness. Jim doesn’t solely credit himself for the developments, and instead takes pride in the rangatahi themselves and the holistic kaupapa Māori values that underpin the theatre’s programme.  

Rather than a traditional elevated stage with a modifiable backdrop, creative directors opted for a traverse stage, which mimicked a fashion catwalk. The audience were split in rows parallel to each other and the performance took place in the middle of this. The set up could have proved difficult for the young actors but they rose to the challenge and used the space to engage their audience from all sides. 

“It’s definitely been great having outside practitioners and professional theatre practitioners coming in and working with the students. The energy and the passion that brings, and then what that shows the students as well, is so important. It shows that some people follow it [acting] their whole life and just what you can do with theatre,” says Tamsin. 

The programme was set to be a one-off project, however the success of the performances and the enthusiasm from those involved may just signal otherwise.

Read more about the lead up to the performance in a previous Education Gazette article, Exploring Māori histories through performing arts(external link).

The performance used a traverse stage, like a fashion catwalk, to capture the audience from all angles.