C U L T U R E
IN THE TRENCHES In World War I, during a Christmas ceasefire, Māori soldiers wanted to play rugby, not football, against some German soldiers – but they assented to football if they got to perform a haka. Putting a twist on this tale, Isaac Lee (who runs a video-production company) made the excellent short film The Haka at his Upper Hutt lifestyle block, where he’d already dug trenches to make a music video. He released The Haka online. Then, secretly, a friend submitted it to film festivals. In October it screens at the Festival des Antipodes in France.
SPELL-BINDING
STANDING IN
SPEAKING MY LANGUAGE
Boundary-pushing actor, writer, and producer Jean Sergent describes herself as a “hereditary witch. A good witch, of course! I’m a descendant of Cornish Romanichal people, sometimes called gypsies. Also, my great-grandmother was the neighbourhood tea-leaf reader in Naenae, Lower Hutt in the 1950s.” Jean’s witchcraft includes spells, healing rituals, astrology, and tarot. She and long-time friend/collaborator Jonny Potts perform their (separate) tragicomedies in Live Through This, about being in Wellington in times of upheaval. Circa, from 23 October.
Wellington's world-touring soul and R’n’B songstress Deva Mahal – daughter of American blues musician Taj Mahal – felt off balance in 2020, between bad health and the pandemic. That experience inspired her new single, Stand In, released on 28 August. Mahal performs a one-off concert with capital band Fat Freddy’s Drop (18 September, Michael Fowler Centre). Fat Freddy’s album Wairunga was released digitally in late August.
Every year, longtime Māori theatre company Taki Rua stages its Te Reo Māori season, touring children’s theatre that uses only te reo Māori around schools nationwide. This year’s show, by Toro Pikopiko Puppeteers Jeffrey Addison and Whaitaima Te Whare, is about Pourakahua, a cross between a human and a bird. Kids who don’t know te reo can still follow the story – and enjoy the music and physical humour. There’s a final free whanau showing of Pourakahua on 29 September, at the National Library.
The largest single display of Cherry Blossoms in New Zealand
Tickets on sale now blossomvalley.nz 9 September – 3 October
