October 17, 2022
Bard policy gets oratorical flick
A leading Māori orator and a part-time actor say denying schoolkids the opportunity to perform Shakespeare is cutting off a rich source for Māori oratory.
Te Waihoroi Shortland’s Shakespearian credits include both the film Maori Merchant of Venice and a reo Maori production of Troilus and Cressida and the Globe Theatre in London in 2012.
He says Creative New Zealand’s decision to withdraw funding from the Sheilah Winn New Zealand secondary school Shakespeare Festival because it is part of a “canon of imperialism” and is not relevant for a decolonising Aotearoa is an insult to scholars like Pei Te Hurunui Jones and Pita Awatere who translated and adopted Bard’s words to fit their own purposes.
“It’s the elegance of the language which Pei Te Hurinui appreciated. Pita Awatere in preparation of his time at war and his reflections on life was a Shakespearean enthusiast and not because these people’s minds were suddenly colonised but because they appreciated the language. Oratorical Maori and Shakespeare align so well,” Mr Shortland says.
He says if Shakespeare fails today’s Creative New Zealand test then the other major literary gift of the colonizer, the Bible, also needs to be banned.