If I were honest, I’d admit I haven’t been out to much theatre for about 5 years.
It’s all become so painfully puritanically woke in NZ and if I want to be lectured on 4th wave feminist non-binary activism I’d join Bluesky.
My daughter had spent months training for Kapa Haka and then more weeks on a Haka Theatre performance called Autaia which happened on Wednesday night, 7pm at the Aotea Centre.
Like a dutiful Dad, I enthusiastically agreed to come and support her performance but was less enthusiastic when I realised she was first up, that the entire event was 3 and a half hours long and she wanted to watch all the performances!
So there I was coming to peace with 3 and a half hours of Haka Theatre and pushing down my base line cynicism when I noticed the rest of the crowd.
It was young, brown and joyful.
The energy in the air as the Centre filled all the way up was electric.
Over 2000 young Māori and Pacifica with whanau excitedly filling the Aotea Centre with a passionate spirit that was contagious.
The moment the lights went down, the roar of anticipation and support was surprising and beautiful.
Any cynicism I had going into the evening melted away as I watched spell bound at the next 3 and a half hours of glorious sedition, militancy and pure celebration.
Haka Theatre is Kapa Haka + Glee + MTV + a Molotov cocktail.
From the start where the NZ Police were portrayed as racist Thugs for beating and hunting over stayer Pacific Island students during the Dawn Raids…
…to the Treaty being burnt in the background as the point that Māori never ceded sovereignty is replayed over and over and over again to the cheering audience.
There is one performance where a quote from a student who was punished at school for speaking Māori melts into an image of a huge white noose hanging in a tree while an entire stage of students symbolically lift white ribbons around their throats and hang themselves.
Sweet Che Fucking Guevara!
Every time the Māori sovereignty flag was raised on stage by one of the teams, the crowd roared their support!
When the Polynesian Panthers appear on stage, the kids bring the house down.
They understand and are excited by the politics, this isn’t earnest theatre kids performing symbolism in a vacant vacuum, the kids watching know the references and are celebrating them!
Then there is a moment that makes me sit up in open mouthed surprise.
During one of the performances, Seymour, Winston and Luxon come up in the background…
…and when they did, all hell broke lose.
The gasp of shock from the combined audience that these hated figures would suddenly appear in huge form in front of them was startling, and then that gasp of oxygen ignited with a fury and outrage that exploded from the lungs of over 2000 as they roared in naked rage at the three of them.
It was like that moment in 1984 when they all start yelling at Goldstein…
…it was glorious.
I’ve never seen 3 and half hours of wondrous sedition like this before.
Based on the outright righteous fury of the performers, we’re going to have to give Māori their own Parliament folks.
The manner in which the predominantly Māori crowd yelled support and celebration at the performers made me wonder what possible version of white people performing to white peers would we perform ourselves to elicit this level of passionate support?
A song about selling each other houses and calling that wealth? A mime play about not being able to afford your usual Bali Holiday and walking the Milford Track instead? Or what about a dance number where we sell basic bitch milk powder to China while polluting our rivers?
Those white cultural stories of dairy exporting, first world problems and property speculation just don’t seem to be the toe tappers one would hope.
The whole Autaia performance was in Te Reo and I don’t speak a lick of the Reo so I can’t tell you directly what all the performers were saying, but the entry level vibe was, ‘We ain’t going to put up with redneck cracker settler telling us what’s what no more’.
I compare the passion and political compass of that night to the anti-Māori, anti-Treaty race baiting by this hard right Government and I can tell you all right now, the future is brown and young and the next generation are not so culturally insecure to think Māori pride makes us smaller.
There is no fucking way the next generation will accept Māori being second class citizens in their own country.
The race baiting from ACT, National, NZF, Hobson’s Pledge and Taxpayers Union will not win, can not win and the next generation won’t let them win.
Autaia was powerful, funny, militant, seditious, raucous, passionate, clever and angry.
I loved every magical minute.
I need to get out to more theatre.
5 Stars
Ohhh a maori centric play/performance mocking the government and it gets 5 stars….
What a surprise, what a shock, wasn’t expecting that.
I wonder when it will go global, Broadway perhaps?
It won’t go global, or even appear in a theatre, without neoliberal Whitey’s subsidies.
And historically the kids always know what’s best for everyone and what’s really real.
Just look at the Cultural Revolution.
After all, they have „lived experience“.
The race baiting from Im right, ACT, National, NZF, Hobson’s Pledge and Taxpayers Union will not win, can not win and the next generation won’t let them win.
Race baiting from the right…What a surprise, what a shock, wasn’t expecting that.
@ Im roger. Broad as your arse perhaps because I bet you’ll spend all day sitting on yours.
” …we’re going to have to give Māori their own Parliament folks…” As a white farmer I ask “Why not? “I think it would be a brilliant thing to enable. We could have co-governance then we could go after the rich and the foreign owned banksters who’ve swindled us into this Hell hole.
Do you own a farm?
It should be taken on tour right through NZ
Interested in your perception that a Maori parliament is required and how this would operate.
1– What constitutional power will this parliament have?
2- Will it be able to overrule the New Zealand crown legislature?
2– Is the legislative law making made by the Maori parliament able to be imposed on non Maori?
3– To enforce Maori parliament laws will a separate Maori police force and justice system be required?
4– Will non Maori have separate seats in the Maori parliament so as to reflect their potential exclusion in the law making process (Sort of Maori seats in reverse)?
Perhaps it could be explained to the rest of New Zealand how this parliament will run alongside the crown? For if it is tokenism only it will be a major setback to Maori future growth. Is this Maori parliament a real deal for young Maori or just an activist pipe dream?
I have been to many young peoples concerts and gatherings and the enthusiasm is as infectious as the young Maori people showed at the concert you atttended. Would it not be grand if ALL that energy can be gardenered for the greater good.
You will find that Bomber doesn’t really think through the ramifications of a lot of the things he says. The rhetoric is what makes TDB fun.
Most Maori do not want their own parliament and are very happy to live in a country called New Zealand like everyone else. Only a few radical hard activists are stirring for this disastrous separatism. Anyway, say we had a separate maori parliament, with President Tamihere no doubt, wouldn’t it be fair to say that maori shouldn’t play for the NZ All Blacks since they would have their exclusive Aotearoa team to play in? Unless they want to play for NZ of course. Same with the Olympics. Aotearoa could enter its own team and NZ could enter one. Be interesting who would choose to play for NZ rather than Aotearoa?
Jonzie, does that also translate on the ABs not performing the HAKA?
Yes. It’d overcooked anyway.
Yep, most overrated part of the All Blacks. The Haka is well past the expiry date for placing the fear into opposing teams. Rather have stadium singing a national anthem like Welsh or Scots (even the poms or french at a push) singing to get the crowd to back the team. The New Zealand Haka has nothing compared to this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVZHklqNGoo
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daQCPz-pNGg
Time for a New Zealand version of “Flower Of Scotland”. That puny bilingual antham we have is just rubbish.
Tell that to the ABS it works for them remember they’re the most successful team ever in world sport and they’ll probably tell rednecks like you a big get fucked!
In any case, under a Maori Parliament, surely they wouldghave there own new national anthem?
You inability to understand the difference between a Maori Parliament and a NZ Government is your problem, not mine
So a huge ” hate whitey indoctrination event” then, what could possibly go wrong.
So its was a huge hate whitey indoctrination event then. Brainwashing the next generation of useless fucks who will take no responsibility for their own bad decisions in life! Wonderful
Nah just want our country back simple
Some of the land your leaders sold some was taken as the spoils of war just like ownership past to the winning tribe up till colonialism came .
Time to stop looking back at the past and prepare to prosper in the now. ⁷
Trevor, In 1860 Māori held about 80% (approximately 23.2 million acres or 9.4 million hectares) of the land in the North Island. Much of the 6 million or so acres owned by Europeans had been bought by the Crown. The NZ wars were perpetrated by the crown not Maori and that historic evidence based. Looking to the past is vital to understanding the present so liars like you can’t make shit up to suit your narrative So a big fuck-you to your advice Trevor cause its the blind leading the blind no thank you.
jESUS YOU JUST DESCRIBED THE GENERATIONS OF THE LAST 50 YEARS.
Martyn – Well done Dad…good on you for supporting your daughter…NZ does not need a separate Māori Parliament.
Can’t see it happening until the browning of aotearoa JT predicts but at that point would a maori upper house be necessary?
I would guess the play was government funded
At some point we’re going to have to make a decision. Ethnostate or democracy. We can’t be both
Treaty Principles debate is going to be a good start
The Treaty of waitangi Principles favor pakeha not Maori. You think that getting rid of principles is gonna do pakeha any good? Remember the principles water down Maori sovereignty because if it was interpreted as per international law that govern treaties than Maori have “Tino Rangatiratanga” (sovereignty) over their lands and resources. The English version is null & void because majority chiefs signed the Maori version that is very different to the english version so to make matters fair & equal the judiciary cautiously created principles following the Magna Carta & international law which are:
1) The Principle of Government
2) The principle of Partnership
3) The Principle of Equality
4) The Principle of Cooperation
5) The Principle of Redress
6) The Principle of Management
7) The principle of Protection
None of those principles came from parliament or the voters. They came from an autocracy
We’re still a democracy. Lets have the discussion and vote on it
Anyone heard of “James Caddell”? This gentleman would be the first european to wear a “ta moko” he is the very first recorded pakeha ever to live & settle among maori. In late 1810 “James Caddell” and his whale/seal crew of five left from Port Jackson now known as Sydney Harbour headed to New Zealand’s south Island some reports say they were captured by local maori at the Mata Au river mouth now called the Clutha River.
James Caddell is said to have been a lad of only 16 when he arrived off South Cape, Stewart Island, in the sealer Sydney Cove. Five sailors and the boy Caddell set off in a sealing boat for the island. As soon as they landed they were attacked by a party of Māori led by Honekai, chief of Ōue. The five men were slain, but Caddell was saved by Tokitoki, the chief’s niece, who claimed his life by throwing a cloak over him. Caddell soon adapted to the ways of his captors. Tokitoki became his wife, he submitted to being tattooed, and by his marriage and his fighting abilities he acquired the status of a chief.
We have an awesome history warts and all worth looking into and has the keys IMO to unlocking our ability as pakeha & Maori to really appreciate our shared commonality and respect for each others difference.
Now you can see why the whitey righty dont want the under 20s voting .
Yes Gordon. Don’t forget the birth rate of Maori/Pacifika is higher than the whitey righty as well . Whitey too busy getting agitated and stressed to bred.
Yeah Maori and pacifica are 4-5 siblings to pakehas 0 -2 per family.
Voting age is 18, Einstein.
On this site, people tend to have more passion than intellect.
No rational person wants brainwashed teens dictating how taxes are spent. Young people are intellectually rigid, overly confident and lacking in wisdom.
You are being sarcastic of course. Hahahaha.
another scared supremist
gw,”supremist?”
20% of New Zealander’s identify as Maaori or Part Maaori so I can see why the Whitey Righty Parties do not want the Voting Age reduced.
I see the gross intellectual chasms of the right and left in equal measure. They invent reality and look for followers. The morning reality is that everything needs to be paid for and the Crown has no cash except tax payers who had nothing to do with its treaty breaches. Thanks to previous governments including Ardern‘s the Uk Crown off the hook,
Just more racist bullshit.
Agree JB some pakeha are quite racist bunch on this site
James Brown. Yep. The Education Dept’s leaping on the globalist anti-colonialism bandwagon, just as they have with transgender ideology. All of our children deserve more than divisive cherry-picked narratives.
The indigenous populations globally aren’t globalist ask the indigenous Palestinians if they’re globalist???
Great piece Martyn.
One point though. One of your go-to insults is to use the term ‘basic bitch’. In the article you mention ‘basic bitch milk powder’.
I find it a bit jarring and yes, even a bit sexist really. Maybe think about retiring it, eh?
Cheers
Sweet, get the police hate and white blame for thier lack of personal effort ingrained early. This sort of shit is what causes all of the victim mentality rampant in nz.
Kim. 100%. But the victim mentality rampant here is also another globalist dialectic, exemplified eg by the uber-privileged Prince of Whiners and his ghastly wife Meghan M, and is possibly another mechanism being utilised in the international elite’s assault upon freedom of speech – amongst other things. The number of high-achieving Maori in New Zealand parliamentary parties, and getting there independently, shows how wrong they are.
How unfortunate for the fantasists then, that Maori knowingly ceded sovereignty.
Or New Zealand could have a war about it if that’s what they’re wanting?
KCC, another historic illiterate pakeha. Historians and written historic records recorded by european settlers, captains, Governors, missionaries, etc… undoubtedly evidence based that Maori neva ceded sovereignty and here a quick historical lesson why Maori neva ceded sovereignty?
Hone Heke was the first Chief to sign the treaty of waitangi 1840 the Maori version. Six years later in 1846 he began chopping down the british flag at Kororareka (Russell) 4 times creating an accidental war. Then you have the creation of the Kingitanga movement 1858 supported by maori across the country because they had become alarmed and rightfully so of losing control of their country. Then you have the Waikato invasion perpetrated on a lie by “Governor George Grey” in 1863.
I know my history clearly you don’t!!
Yes an “awesome history warts and all” and the history being made today for better or worse.
“During one of the performances, Seymour, Winston and Luxon come up in the background…The gasp of shock from the combined audience that these hated figures would suddenly appear in huge form in front of them was startling, and then that gasp of oxygen ignited with a fury and outrage that exploded from the lungs of over 2000 as they roared in naked rage at the three of them.”
These hated figures now leading the country two out of the three are maori.
In the end countries people want to live in are highly productive with high GDP
That’s why New Zealanders of all backgrounds will prefer moving to Australia over PNG or any other place close to indigenous values.
That is why countries China wipes out feudal practices of all Chinese nationalities because they know they are a barrier to becoming an advanced and liveable society
The only countries that worship indigenous cultures are those that are wealthy and privileged enough to never have to live in one.
Treaty, eh! whenua, gave them that, e, wai e,waiti, iwi., our.
Guess you haven’t heard of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang ? Awesome place the Uyghurs have autonomy ova their own affairs China even built them a huge Mosque and world class infrastructure and they’re participants in the huge gas find that will enrich them further.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3166036/past-present-and-future-oil-chinas-xinjiang-uygur-region#:~:text=How%20big%20are%20the%20oil,gas%20bearing%20area%20in%20China.
Who the fuck owns the water, fuck ,te treaty, waitangi says who.
I’m sure it was awesome, partly because it really was awesome and partly because one wants it to be awesome.
Jonzie. Nice. Kids’ concerts are awesome, and lovely for parents, grans, and assorted hangers-on to experience. The kids can be multi-talented performers, but whether this would translate into being effective politicians is another question…
Depends on what type of politician you are looking for,those that will make New Zealand better for everyone,or those that will make New Zealand worse for everyone.(Ardern/Hipkins Labour Government.)
I won’t quibble with the review, but who exactly is “going to have to give Māori their own Parliament”? The Crown? If Maori want to restore their own instruments of government they will do so without the permission or assistance of the Crown, and those restored institutions will look nothing like a “Parliament” on the Westminster model.
The very idea of a Maori Parliament is ridiculous,it wouldn’t work it can’t work.