Te Tai Tokerau edition

Kia ora e te whānau,

Nau mai, hoki mai ki Te Arawhata—Te Tai Tokerau edition!

This week we’re taking a Māori creatorverse roady with loads of pit stops to pick up some northern dialect, check out ancient pā, and even jump in on a perspective changing dinghy trip—plus loads more to fill your cultural kete.

First up/Tuatahi, choose ētahi paramanawa/some snacks and strap in, kua tae mai te wā/the time has come for ‘talk of the tāone’.

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Talk of the tāone

Your weekly round up of the arts, media, and events everybody’s talking about

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- "Beautiful, strong wāhine presenting new beautiful, moving work." BATS Theatre's amazing new show, Hine Te Rēhia, starts next week.

- Te Māngai Pāho turns 30 this month, and we're getting the gifts! They’re sharing their epic projects all July.

- New books are coming our way from Shilo Kino and Hana Tapiata—get excited!

- 120 handwoven harakeke whāriki by Beronia Scott and the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei weaving collective now grace every room at this hotel.

- Hurō/hooray! New tunes are here—check out the latest releases from Anna Coddington, Allana Goldsmith, and Manu Taupunga.

- We're loving Tipua, a new Māori SciFi animation in te reo Māori with English subtitles and a familiar, catchy intro song!

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Picks o te wiki

Our top 4 Te Tai Tokerau inspired recommendations from the world of Māori arts, media, and events.

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Listen to (or watch!): NZ Wars; The Stories of Ruapekapeka‍‍

Through hāmoamoa/bullet holes in the local whare karakia/church, 3D animations of an ingenious trench warfare system, and the ducking and diving of Mihingārangi Forbes in the incredible indentations left behind, this episode brings the infamous battle of Ruapekapeka—a site we’ve previously driven right past without knowing it existed—to life.

_{Find it: listen on Spotify or watch it on the RNZ website I Time: 50mins or 40mins I Cost: free I Credits: produced by RNZ, the podcast is hosted by Shannon Haunui-Thompson and the video by Mihingārangi Forbes.}

Read: the pukapuka/books and lessons on Māori Minute
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Nō/From Ngāpuhi and learning te reo Maori? You’ve hit the jackpot with this one (if you’re from elsewhere, like us, you’ve also hit the jackpot but it’s coming with Ngāpuhi mita/dialect). Between Quinton Hita’s pukapuka/books, videos, and unique way of explaining things we’re all in for some taka te kapa/the penny has dropped moments here!

_{Find it: on the Māori Minute website I Time: your choice I Cost: $60 for a year’s access I Credits: created and run by Quinton Hita.}

Watch: Whina
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You’ll probably recognise her āhua/image from the 1975 Land Marches, but how much do you actually know about Whina Cooper? This kiriata/film will tug on your heartstrings and possibly make you fall in love with Vinnie Bennett as it fills the gaps on this incredible Northern leader’s life and how she influenced our country’s hītori/history.

_{Find it: on TVNZ+ I Time: 1hour 50mins I Cost: free I Credits: Directed by James Napier Robertson and Paula Whetu Jones, produced by Tainui Stephens.}

Go to: Cora-Allan’s exhibition, ‘Encountering Aotearoa’

Those Northeners think different, I tell ya—like Cora-Allan, an artist nō/from Ngāpuhi, Tainui, and Niue, who during her residency at Parehuia, decided to move her studio to a dinghy. The new perspective inspired a near circumnavigation of Aotearoa, with her Pāpā on notes, to create a series of cartographic images using pigments from earth. Different/Rerekē. And rad.

_{Find it: currently on at Christchurch Art Gallery, out of towners can check out her instagram for a taste I Time: however long you like I Cost: free I Credits: Cora-AllanEncountering Aotearoa (installation view) 2023. Courtesy of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.}

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A guilty road trip
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The truth is, when we did our Waitangi roady earlier this year, I DID have an inkling that Grace wouldn’t like Macintosh’s and I wasn’t totally upset I’d have to eat them all myself…

But that’s not the only roady related whakaaro/thought on my conscience as of late.

The other more serious one came up when I was watching the Ruapekapeka doco we featured i te rā nei/today—and it’s that I’ve driven past that site a zillion times without even a whakaaro/thought.

Sometimes on roadies, I’m not sure whose tribal territory I’m in.

Heck, I stopped to read a plaque on my morning hikoi/walk into work i tērā wiki/last week (a walk I do ia rā, ia rā/every day), only to find out the Pōhutukawa grove that another person’s dog was weeing on is a deeply tapu area that Māori and early Pākeha used to stop to acknowledge every time they passed.

All around us are Māori historical sites, places of legend, marae, changes in dialect, and local artists we should know about and I’m ignorantly driving past without seeing any of them.

It’s an embarrassing fact I’m keen to change. Like, I’m guessing, many of you, I never had someone to show me. But team, we do now. Māori creatives are producing super accessible content for us to get to know their regions properly.

From hereon, when I drive through Northland, I’ll be pulling into Ruapekapeka, I’ll be picturing Whina on those roads she walked, seeing the landscapes from Cora-Allan’s perspective, hearing the strong Ngāpuhi H in ‘wHakarongo’ and I won’t be stopping there.

This month we’re continuing our virtual roady to explore more regions and we’re offering you the shotgun seat.

Plenty of ‘egg n creams’ to go round, so jump on in e te whānau! 😉

This trip might have started out guilty, but it’s ending enlightened.

Next stop? Well, let’s just say it’s going to be mighty…

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That’s us e te whānau. We hope this newsletter helped you to learn from, connect with, and just ruddy well enjoy te ao Māori today. And maybe inspired your next roady.

Mā te wā!