New pathway to NCEA credits through haka theatre

Autaia is opening up the world of Māori performing arts to students and enabling them to use this work to gain NCEA credits in Te Ao Haka, Te Reo Māori, Theatre and Dance, just as Stage Challenge did for dance and Smokefree Rockquest did for music.

The programme was pioneered by Kura Te Ua (Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri, Te Aitanga a Māhaki, Te Whakatōhea and Tūhoe) last year when she partnered with Auckland Live for the premiere of Autaia.

She told them: ‘‘I’ve had this thing in my back pocket for over 10 years now, but are you guys ready for it?’’

Te Ua brought together established Māori art practitioners to work with students of three kura Māori to create and perform three 30-minute pieces of haka theatre. The programme gives rangatahi Māori a new outlet for selfexpression and uplifts students to become future leaders in the performing arts industry, she said.

Georgia Williams (Waikato, Tainui), who is year 12 at Rutherford College, is playing the female lead in the school’s production of Tōku Whakapapa. She’s one of the students taking Te Ao Haka at school.

‘‘I think it’s really awesome that we have this opportunity to do something like this as Māori. We don’t really get that privilege that often, so it’s really cool to have the opportunity to showcase who we are and what we’re all about.’’

With a performing environment for assessment, ‘‘there’s a lot of different dynamics and aspects that we need to pick up on within our class’’, said Georgia. ‘‘I also think it’s just a way to express ourselves as we put our own identities into the characters that we play.’’

Said Te Ua: ‘‘When I was at school, when I did kapa haka, this would have been something that I would have loved as a very shy girl to bring myself into a space where I could feel there was a place for me.’’

This year, an additional five kura auraki secondary schools (Englishmedium schools) join the show and are mentored by three times the number of mātanga toi, including playwrights, directors and lighting, sound and costume experts.

Te Ao Haka, which five of the schools in Autaia are piloting, is still in its NCEA trial period. Te Ua has worked with the Ministry of Education on a curriculum for haka theatre and helped write units and resources that combine kapa haka, dance, theatre and te reo Māori to align with that curriculum.

‘‘There has never really been anything that’s bridged all of those departments together.’’

Rangatahi who are not part of Autaia are still able to experience the kaupapa. Thirty schools from

Tāmaki Makaurau will attend tomorrow’s dress rehearsal where there will also be a rangatahi expo at

Aotea Square with music, artists, kapa haka and initiatives that students can get involved in.

‘‘It’s hitting things on multiple levels in terms of expanding the capacity within the arts sector, but also within education and ... getting our kids back to school,’’ Te Ua said.

Her hope for Autaia is that schools and communities can not only be part of it, but that they can also develop their own creative teams. She’s referring to ‘‘the opportunities that lie within theatre and the conventions of the lighting and staging and actually bringing in narratives to the forefront in a way that we could have never done on Te Matatini stage’’.

– This is Public Interest Journalism funded by New Zealand on Air.