Kopu starts on Thursday and runs at the Te Pou Theatre, Henderson to May 15, 2023. Photo / Whakaata Māori
Kopu starts on Thursday and runs at the Te Pou Theatre, Henderson to May 15, 2023. Photo / Whakaata Māori
A new show at the home of Māori theatre was created in response to National MP Judith Collins’ criticism of women not being allowed to speak on the marae.
Kōpu - running from May 4-May 15 at the Te Pou Theatre, west Auckland - is a celebration of wāhine Māorithat uses music and theatre to pay tribute to nannies, aunties and mothers.
The politically motivated show features seven talented wāhine Māori.
“Kōpū is a theatre show about wāhinetanga or womanhood and Māoritanga, being Māori and also how we have the balance of feminine and masculine within us and, when those are balanced, that’s where we find true tau or settlement within ourselves,” Māori actress Te Huamanuka Luiten-Apirana says.
Kōpū director Amber Curreen, from Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa and Te Roroa says this show is about giving wāhine the stage.
“We have these incredible wāhine Māori who are so talented, and we really wanted a show to put them in and at the same time there was a lot of kōrero that was happening around the mana of wahine and particularly around being able to speak on the marae and a lot of that kōrero was coming from wahine Pākehā and it was getting a lot of attention,” Curreen says.
“On that subject we have for example, Marama Davidson, making interesting articulate, intelligent conversation, putting forward really important take [issues] and it wasn’t really talked about much, it wasn’t in the media as much and we wanted to uplift the voice of wāhine Māori about their own experiences.”
Both Curreen and Luiten-Apirana say that whether it is on the marae or not, wāhine are just as important as tāne.
“We have many responsibilities as wāhine and, no matter where you are there is tikanga and so I think we stick to the tikanga of the marae and keep ourselves safe but I also think we can’t say we don’t have a voice. It’s really hard for me to accept that,” says Luiten-Apirana
“We leave the tikanga there for our ōkawa (formal) spaces. We all know the importance of the voice of wāhine on the marae whether it’s our karanga, whether it’s the importance of our waiata tautoko (supporting song), whether it’s everything that we’ve been telling our tāne to say before they get up and say it, these are things that we know,” Curreen says.
Off stage, the women have enjoyed sharing their experiences and talent.
“It’s like a really fun slumber party where we all share fun talents but not only us, of course, everyone behind the scenes as well is incredibly talented and the majority wahine as well,” Luiten-Apirana says.
“It’s like a slumber party but I’m also telling them now it’s time to shut up and go to sleep. So that’s me, that’s my job,” Curreen says.
Kōpū will run from May 4-15, before heading to Kia Mau Festival in Wellington.
