Arts Celebration: Mauī The Trickster!

Breathtaking! Powerful! A Triumph! Mauī the Trickster, our Performing Arts piece was presented Tuesday and Wednesday to our Whānau and friends. As the sun went down the lights came up on our retelling of the Mauī stories. Everyone had written poems and songs, versions and interpretations of the Trickster, Outcast myth. We then shaped these , everyone a choreographer, into dance pieces. The show began with Haka, calling out to the ancestor Mauī and then moved through the phases of his journeys of discovery, transformation and transcendence. Finally and ultimately his discovery of mortality.

Most of all Mauī the Trickster was a moving demonstration of the wairua of the young artists, musicians, poets and dancers in the Māhutonga Matariki Whānau.

Mauī - The Trickster

Poetry, song and dance, riotous rhythms and rhymes; all of these elements come together in our performance piece; Mauī -The Trickster. We have worked hard, writing individually or collaboratively, working out chords of songs and making beats, and dancing, dancing, dancing.

We have learnt a great deal about the Mauī myths, how they connect to the Pacific in ancient, and now in more modern times. We discovered that Mauī is multifaceted, trickster and trouble make yes, but also hero, shapeshifter, dreamer, provocateur and agent of change. Mauī is a part of us all; or we are all part Mauī. We are very excited about presenting our work to Whānau next week. See you at the show!