‘I know they’ll love it’: Tāme Iti takes the stage

REVIEW
In sonics, tones of grief and pain can be portrayed between people who don’t speak the same language.
Using light and shadows, Rotorua-based director and producer Rangipo Ihakara takes audiences on a journey through colonisation and loss of culture in the global premiere of The Voices in The Shadows.
Opening with the emotion of a violin, played by Sarah Taipa-Bell and closing with a message of kotahitanga or unity and solidarity, Rotorua’s Wairea Company Limited took audiences through a story of what it means to be indigenous today.
The show is part of the Aronui Indigenous Arts Festival, which launched at the same time. People in Rotorua can catch the last show tonight at the Sir Howard Morrison Centre at 7pm.
Using contemporary dance, hip hop, drum lines, harmony, wiri and poi, Ihakara platforms Māori, Pacific and Palestinian stories in her stunning debut. Kaihaka from kura Kaupapa Māori and a family from Palestine share the stage for a fusion of indigenous sound, dance and story.
“Every language in the world will be able to sit here and create something in their minds,” Ihakara said.
“It is time for us indigenous people to be able to speak up, to share and to communicate in a free and safe space without any judgment.”
Ihakara began her indigenous performing arts & theatre company at the beginning of 2024, “to create a safe space for all indigenous artists”.
A performer in the Mau dance company for 12 years, Ihakara said Samoan theatre director and choreographer Lemi Ponifasio was a major influence on this work.
“He really made me realise how much mana and power we really do have as indigenous people.
“To be able to utilise our cultural dances, values and languages to express how we feel.”
Featured in the show was friend and well-known artist and activist Tāme Iti.
“We have worked together in previous work, so I thought that it was just right to allow him the safe space to share his feelings,” Ihakara said.
Having worked together before overseas, sharing Māori culture, Iti said: “This show is special because it brings together people from different parts of Aotearoa – places like Te Teko, Ruatoki and Waikato.
“We’ve got young ones who come from little villages, just like me. It’s great to see so many young people and women involved, bringing their magic to the performance. We men just fill in the gaps.”
Iti mostly worked with artists with a kapa haka background. He said that made collaboration easy because they brought their whakapapa, knowledge of te reo, and waiata to the work.
“Rangipo is good at moulding it together, and we help each other manage it. I like to improvise and do it freestyle. You’re almost standing on your feet creating work.
“It’s not something you write about. You’ve got to see it and feel it. It’s all about vibration. We have to reach the audience and hold their attention for the entire show. They’ve got to say, ‘wow.’ But I know they’ll love it,” Iti said.
As a kaiako or teacher at Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Ruamata in Rotorua, Ihakara said she lived and worked by Te Aho Matua – the statement of learning and teaching principles, or philosophy, that many kura kaupapa Māori use.
“In those values it says to allow people to share and speak their minds and how they think, I was raised in a home like that, so I don’t have a boundary, especially in the creative process – we just allow them to share,” Ihakara said.
With a mix of te reo Māori, Cook Islands songs, news bulletins sound bytes, English and Palestinian singing that evoked a different tone of its own, The Voices in the Shadows gave the indigenous audiences on opening night a showcase of a global tool used for healing – music.
Evoking sadness with the violin, anger when the Palestinian man called loudly, “recognition is a matter of when not if, right”?
Tears rolled when Ihakara presented the reminder that children in Aoteraoa are safe but children in Palestine are not.
“What I’m seeing that’s happening over there today is what was happening to our ancestors 100 years ago, but now we have a lot of platforms to be able to speak up and share on their behalf,” Ihakara said.
“As tangata whenua and indigenous peoples worldwide, we have faced colonisation, racism, suppression, land confiscation and many other injustices for centuries.
“Presently, it is apparent we continue to fight for our mana motuhake [self-determination], recognition and the right to live freely on our ancestral lands.”
Ihakara said we must not overlook Palestine as well as recent Government changes “aimed at suppressing te reo Māori in Aotearoa”.
Playing with shadow in the Matangirua Theatre at the Sir Howard Morrison Centre, Ihakara sent her performers down the aisle, mixing shadow, wiri and poi to cook her message.
Rehearsing at the Hinekura marae in Rotoiti, Ihakara said “we have people from our community in this project as performers, as crew workers, most of our crew all come from the Bay of Plenty and Rotorua”.
Te Arawa singers Kaaterama Pou and Rakai-Hakeke Whauwhau also star in the show.
Aleyna Martinez is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. She moved to the region in 2024 and has previously reported in Wairarapa and at Pacific Media Network.