Hallelujah! Te reo in full voice
Strong Ma¯ ori influence at arts festival, writes Dionne Christian
Ate reo Ma¯ ori version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah will open the Auckland Arts Festival on Thursday. Thousands are expected to gather in Aotea Square for Tira (Choir), the free opening-night event, with Stan Walker, Maisey Rika, Ria Hall and Troy K¯ıngi leading a massive outdoor karaoke with waiata sung in te reo.
They range from the simple AE IOU to the more challenging Hareruia (Hallelujah) but those who don’t speak te reo can use a new app, created by design agency Whakaaro Factory, with lyrics and translations as well as tutorial videos of some of the songs.
Non-Ma¯ori speakers may also be able to call on help from the festival’s te reo ambassadors, including The Hits drivetime host Stacey Morrison and her husband Scotty Morrison, actors Jarod Rawiri and Jennifer WardLealand, TVNZ sports commentator Jenny-May Clarkson and AUT lecturer and author He¯ mi Kelly.
Tira and the ambassadors’ programme are part of a new festival initiative called “Toitu¯ Te Reo” (uplift te reo) to champion the Ma¯ ori language through the arts. It includes plays in te reo, bilingual signs and programming material and using the ambassadors, all fluent language speakers, to create connections with non-speakers.
AAF creative associate Tama Waipara, also a musician and director of Te Taira¯ whiti Arts Festival in Gisborne, helped put Toitu¯ Te Reo together.
“As the leading arts organisation in the country, we wanted to acknowledge we have a role to play in championing the reo,” says Waipara.
“It’s been about looking at what is done and finding ways to connect to the landscape of Ta¯ maki Makaurau/ Auckland. Our number one expression of that is through the arts so we thought, ‘how can we champion te reo through this and make it an everyday thing within the things we do?”’
As well as Tira, a second concert, To¯ ku Reo Waiata, is on midway through the 17-day festival.
It stars Walker and Rika, plus Annie Crummer, Hinewehi Mohi, Moana Maniapoto, Rob Ruha, Tami Neilson, Seth Haapu, Maimoa and Whirimako Black and is billed as a one-night extravaganza sharing the joy of music and te reo.
Other Toitu¯ Te Reo include a kids’ show, Te Kuia Me Te Pungawerewere, inspired by Patricia Grace’s classic picture book The Kuia and the Spider, and a new play by Apirana Taylor, Ka Tito: Kupe’s Heroic Journey.
It will travel to halls and marae across Auckland.
The festival’s community-led participatory arts programme, Wha¯ nau, is also centred around te reo.
Waipara says a growing number of fluent speakers want to see works in the language while learners, too, want more exposure: “It’s a journey for our nation that we are all on.”
Tira is at 6.30pm on Thursday at Aotea Square.