Theatre’s growing te reo role

The stage has an important part to play in te reo Māori being verbalised and heard by audiences, writes André Chumko.

The stage has an increasingly critical role in efforts to revitalise te reo Māori, but more resource needs to be given to artists and arts organisations creating Māori theatre, practitioners say.

Film-maker and theatre director Katie Wolfe directed Auckland Theatre Company’s The Haka Party Incident, which resurrects the day a group of University of Auckland students rehearsing their annual tradition of a mock haka are confronted by activist group He Taua. The verbatim theatre piece combines documentary and kapa haka, and is critically acclaimed.

In developing the piece, Wolfe investigated the genesis of the haka at the centre of the controversy. She said being able to reflect on history became a ‘‘delightful exploration into the beautiful art form that is haka’’.

Its Māori and Pākehā cast learnt seven different haka for the show, including one written by Wolfe’s son. As kapa haka had international interest, and its brand was so strong, Wolfe said the show did not need to be marketed extensively as audiences were attracted to it naturally.

The stage had an important role to play in te reo being verbalised and heard by audiences in different oratory contexts, Wolfe said. There was benefit in both fluent and new reo speakers hearing language used in stage contexts.

And theatre could help people reflect on, and learn about issues within te ao Māori. It was also a place for Māori stories by Māori artists to be told. But it would be great to see more plays fully in te reo Māori. ‘‘I would love to see that,’’ Wolfe said.

The biggest hurdle for the country to overcome was monolingualism, despite new generations coming through kura kaupapa and kohanga reo having great linguistic knowledge. ‘‘We do need to promote more linguistic diversity . . . that’s the big hurdle,’’ Wolfe said.

Tānemahuta Gray is kahukura/chief executive of Taki Rua Productions, a company that works to produce theatre with a distinctively Māori voice. It tours productions locally and internationally, including in more than 130 kura kaupapa and schools, with tens of thousands of young people seeing its work each year.

He said demand for Māori theatre had grown hugely in recent years, and its programme was continually expanding.

Theatre was a beautiful context for te reo to thrive in, and significant employment opportunities existed for translators and writers of Māori theatre. Theatre was also a fun medium to learn and explore te reo, and a good language learning supplement.

Gray said theatre was powerful because it could challenge racism and touch people about Māori issues and ideas in rich, complex ways. It also contributed to community and individual wellbeing/ hauora, healing and connection.

‘‘It can sit with you for hopefully months, years,’’ he said.

There were enormous business opportunities for Māori theatre as borders reopened and Aotearoa looked to brand its own cultural identity. But there needed to be more support for Māori teachers, and Māori arts practitioners.

As one example, Te Pou Theatre is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based home for Māori performing arts. While it receives core funding from Creative NZ and Auckland Council, its aim to be low cost means it needs to fundraise to keep delivering its programme.

Creative NZ research from 2020 found ‘‘strong, latent’’ potential for Pasifika, Asian and Māori theatre, with many people open to engaging with it despite not having done so previously.

Dr Liza-Mare Syron has worked in theatre in Australia for decades and has extensively studied the role theatre plays in revitalising indigenous languages there.

While theatre was a ‘‘catalyst for cultural conversations’’, she said it was important language was translated in culturallyappropriate ways. To ensure this, elders needed to be worked with, which added another layer to indigenous theatre-making. Theatre-makers also had to grapple with questions of whether to offer translation or subtitling – no easy feat on stage.

‘‘But this is our future, this is what is coming,’’ she said.