Te ihi, te wehi to fore in performance overview

More than a century of Māori performance is being celebrated in an exhibition at the National Library in Wellington.

Pūkana: Moments in Māori Performance spans soldiers performing haka in the trenches of Gallipoli, Inia Te Wiata leading the 1965 production of Porgy and Bess and Alien Weaponry performing te reo Māori thrash metal.

Co-curator and singer-songwriter Ariana Tikao says performance features in Māori origin stories, and tries to get to the heart of what makes it such a vital aspect of Māori life.

It’s subtitled Te Ihi, te wehi, te wana.

“Te Ihi, the thing that actually makes you want to get up and do that waiata tautoko or want to perform; te wehi, Wharehuia Milroy talked about it as being an expression of your atuatanga, as seen in the amazing level of performance that you might see at Te Matatini; and te wana is more about the effect it might have on someone witnessing that performance,” she says.

Follow us on &

Copyright © 2019, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com

RELATED NEWS

Prime mātauranga Māori exponent dies in Utah Rich trove for Maori researcher Prime sceptic on mining value