Auckland Arts Festival Celebrates Te Reo Maori Through Community Arts Projects

The Auckland Arts Festival's Wh nui programme will once again celebrate T maki Makaurau and its creative neighbourhoods through a series of creative projects unique to our diverse region.

Now in its third year, Wh nui is a collection of participatory arts projects in which members of communities are guided by established artists to collaborate and make art relevant to the people and localities in which they live.

This year, Wh nui will be further enriched by M ori language through Toit Te Reo, a new overarching initiative launched this year, which expresses Auckland Arts Festival's commitment to te reo M ori.

Translated as holding fast to our language , Toit Te Reo is AAF's renewed commitment to championing the normalisation of te reo M ori through the platform of the arts and includes a mahi tahi (partnership) with Te Taura Whiri i Te Reo M ori (The M ori Language Commission).

Wh nui projects for 2019 include the live carving of a majestic pou, a locally-devised theatre work in which the k rero of Wait kere are shared through song and theatrical storytelling, and a celebration of cross-cultural and intergenerational ties within the Chinese and S moan communities through pepeha a way of introducing yourself in M ori, which explains who you are by sharing your connections with the people and places that are important to you.

Auckland Arts Festival Artistic Director, Jonathan Bielski says, Now in its third year, Wh nui has fast become a Festival highlight.

Our role as an organisation is not only to host art and art-makers from outside of T maki Makaurau, but to offer a platform for art to be made by our diverse communities, for our diverse communities. In 2019, the International Year of Indigenous Languages, Wh nui will connect the whenua through te reo M ori, offering Aucklanders a deeper understanding of the land on which we stand.

The 2019 Wh nui projects are:

Project Pepeha

M ngere Town Centre Courtyard (next to the Library) | 9 March

South & East Libraries, Aotea Square | 11-24 March

Celebrating cultural and intergenerational ties, this cross-cultural collaboration brings te reo M ori to Chinese and S moan elderly communities through their native mother tongues. Participants will learn, engage with and share their pepeha and their journey will be documented and facilitated by filmmakers Kayne Ngatokowh Peters and Julie Zhu. Short films will be presented as part of the project and also shown throughout Auckland.

Ng Herenga Waka

Mt Roskill | dates and locations to be advised

Ng Herenga Waka, meaning the binding of canoe, is a celebration of all ages and cultures in Mount Roskill. The live carving of a large community pou will be influenced by design workshops held within the local neighbourhood, connecting the creativity and diversity of one of the most multi-cultural suburbs of Auckland. Uniting and representing symbols from the 120 different ethnicities in the Mount Roskill area, this unique work of art will be carved at Waikowhai Intermediate School and then shown at various locations around the region.

He Mokopuna He T puna

Shed 1, Corbans Estate Arts Centre | Saturday 23 March

Elders and children of Wait kere share the korero of Wait kere through the magic of song, storytelling and theatre. Devised with the community in collaboration with Te Pou Theatre, this fun-filled wh nau theatre work shares stories of the whenua where they live, work and play.

The full AAF 2019 programme is here.

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