WHY I READ THE PLAY I READ

APIRANA TAYLOR on Te Raukura: The Feathers of the Albatross

This play by Harry Dansey from the early 1970s was written to smash down locked doors. That is what it did and continues to do. A deeper level of understanding of Te Raukura is gained when the time it was written in and written about are understood. “This play is many things to me,” said Dansey, “but above all it is a tribute to my wife’s people from whom I gained many of the facts and all of the spirit of the times in which the play is set.” The play is set in the times of the Taranaki land wars in the 1860s and the ensuing resistance to land confiscation. It is epic in its scope and its aims. It attempts to cover hitherto littlecovered historical territory. We are taken to battle grounds, marae, Hauhau ceremonies, Parihaka and The House of Representatives amongst other places, as part of a guided tour through events of the era the drama is set. Historical figures Te Whiti, Grey, Te Ua Haumēne, Bryce, Fox, and others come and go throughout the two acts arguing over the issues confronting them and taking action over the conflicts they are caught in. Te Raukura was first performed in 1972 and published in 1974. This was a time of increasing discontent for Māori with the justice system and the disempowerment of Māori by central Government. This combined with grievances over Māori land loss, colonial hypocrisy, loss of cultural identity, misrepresentation and economic difficulties led to many Māori marching in protest, seeking to express this politically as well as through literature, music, visual and performing arts. Theatre, it can be argued, was one of the slower bastions to open its doors – or, more truthfully to have its doors smashed down by would-be Māori theatre practitioners, wishing to tell Māori stories written by Māori with our unique voice. Out of this matrix-like maelstrom, Dansey’s play was born. There is a sincere commitment by the playwright to take the audience on a guided tour through history, as a lesson to help rectify the misrepresentation of Māori people and resistance to land loss, which is part of the play’s point. Occasionally this feels a little didactic, but it must be understood many in Māoridom in this era were knocking on locked doors, desperate to be heard, to portray and redress

past wrongs and to make people aware of injustices with an urgency that drove us to cry out as best we could, with the knowledge we had of this new world of theatre at the time. Two recurrent figures, Koroheke and Tamatane act as narrators throughout the play. Some playwrights use this technique, but in this play it occasionally feels as if the narration is highly instructional, like a teacher pointing at the blackboard, telling us what is happening and what to think. The play could have been more powerful, in parts, if the drama and conflict was portrayed only within the play, leaving the audience to think and reach its own conclusions. This tendency towards didacticism is partly offset through discussions the narrators have between scenes about events within the play. At times the English language used feels archaic, as if the writer is trying to emulate Shakespeare in style – which many developing writers often do unconsciously and seldom do well. However, there is a tradition in much Māori oral poetry to be formal and classical in style which, understandably, the writer strives to recreate in English. Consequently Dansey has written some wonderful poetry within the play, such as the prologue at the beginning of Act Two. ‘Taranaki, and the broken tribes Huddle for comfort round your sacred slopes But comfort there is none for such as they In ridge or rock nor chill impersonal snow, Gone is their mana from the ancient lands; The settler waits impatient close behind The armed patrols which canter down the trails That cross the plains from mountains to the sea And plan the roads, the survey lines, the forts To serve and mark and hold the looted earth.’ Much of what the play was written about is relevant today and will be relevant tomorrow, shining like a torch on aspects of our country’s past and its consequences.

KNOCKING ON LOCKED DOORS, DESPERATE TO BE HEARD

Within the currents swirling about beneath the surface of the play are disturbing conflicts, hidden injustices and truths that can lead one to consider man’s inhumanity and, like Te Whiti, seek a better way. This adds resounding power to the work and a lasting relevance. As an early play at the threshold of what was to be a major breakthrough of trained Māori theatre practitioners producing, writing, acting and directing Māori theatre with our own voice, Te Raukura, takes its place as one of the important and honoured cornerstones of Te Whare Tapere Māori.

ABOVE: George Henare and company in Te Raukura: The Feathers of the Albatross by Harry Dansey, Auckland Arts Festival, St Mary's Cathedral, 1972. Image: Courtesy NZ Herald archive.