Huia Max

TUAKIRITEA is a devised theatre show developed by emerging theatre practitioners Huia Max and Reon Bell. It centres honest and courageous kōrero around what it means to be Māori in modern day Aotearoa.

Huia’s moemoeā…

TUAKIRITEA uses personal and fictional elements to tell a story that explores and deconstructs the often complicated and challenging experiences that define a modern Māori identity. By rangatahi Māori, for rangatahi Māori.

We want to engage audiences from all backgrounds in discussions around the show’s subjects of identity, indigeneity and rangatahi Māori experiences in the 21st century. We want to investigate the common uncomfortable questions young Māori are often unable to talk about, including the stereotypes, privilege, and disconnection to identity in relation to physical appearance.

This funding will be used for our second go at this kaupapa. this time we hope to workshop our already in-development show with experienced Māori artists to develop and enrich our ideas and the key points of our kōrero we want to use the show to convey. We want to stage our show again for a season in the Waikato reigon within 2026, with the possibility of creating a tourable version of the show, enabling us to take it to schools/community centres across the motu in order to engage with our desired Rangatahi audience.

What were the major outcomes of this kaupapa? 

Upon completing a series of waananga, we have been able to start the planning stage around TUAKIRITEA and begin writing. Our TUAKIRITEA waananga marked our starting and commitment to its second staging. We have created a base from which we can start writing from and make planning decisions. Our T-HEI waananga marked our beginning into writing the songs for the show, something we have previously been unable to begin doing. Both shows have reached early milestones for fully committing time and energy into developing the shows.

We were able to share our knowledge and expertise with each other, which in turn would grow each of our abilities in a really empowering way. Making theatre for Maaori/rangatahi Maaori audiences requires a strong foundation made up of intentions, purposes, and dreams. The building of this foundation ensures that the mahi we do with it is a lot stronger.

For TUAKIRITEA, we now have more clarity around its themes of colonialism and birds, and the theatre forms that the characters will explore those themes. For T-HEI, we have activated our thoughts around music, and its ability to assist the way the story of that show is told. It also helped us navigate reaching our target audience of Tamariki, and how music is a great way to do that. Alongside that, working in our roopuu resulted in me believing a lot more in my work, and the potential it has to impact rangatahi Maaori. I can identify growth in these waananga and utilise those learnings to develop my artistic practice.

How did this kaupapa benefit from the Pou Herenga Tangata Award? 

Receiving the Pou Here Tangata scholarship has been very beneficial to TUAKIRITEA’s development. We were able to successfully organise and hold waananga at The Meteor Theatre with Māori creatives travelling from across Aotearoa from Auckland all the way down to Wellington. These waananga will also provide a valuable blueprint for how we will continue to work on these projects in the future.

Alongside our TUAKIRITEA waananga, we were able to visit Maungatautari Bird Sanctuary, this allowed us to interact with manu māori up close in their habitats, and also study the environments they live within. I was particularly inspired by many of the older species of trees in the forests, and was able to dream about how we could artistically incorporate them into our set. This in turn helped us think about how we could be environmentally conscious in our show and its impact on the planet, which is a leading-conversation within our arts industry. In this ever-changing government structure, especially as an artist I feel privileged to receive funding and support to reach my goals.

In regards to T-HEI, we were able to financially compensate Jordyn for her songwriting mentorship and book a studio space for us to work. We were able to provide kai, transport, koha to all the creatives that worked with us on both kaupapa, we respect and appreciate them for going out of their way to bring their whakaaro and support to us and being able to give back to them for this was only made possible through Tapuwaeroa.

What are your future plans for this kaupapa?

We believe we are just getting started on these kaupapa. We can confirm we will be presenting a Kirikiriroa/Hamilton season of “TUAKIRITEA” in 2027. We would like rangatahi Maaori and local kura to have the access to come to our show by providing school time shows/bookings with kura and then having evening performances also for the general public. We hope that the show can have all the chances it can to allow it to grow and manifest in a direction that honours its themes and lets the audience experience something empowering, hopeful and also true. For T-HEI, we intend to finish writing the songs of the show with Jordyn before the end of 2026. We have a script reading at Te Pou Theatre in Taamaki on the 20th of September which will feature some of our waiata. Our hope is that this show will be completed, rehearsed and ready to be tourable to schools around the country within the next 2 years.