Mataatua wharenui, in Whakatāne, has quite the history. The meeting house was erected by Ngāti Awa in 1875 as a way of proclaiming the iwi was still a force in the aftermath of raupatu (land confiscations).
Four years later, the wharenui was pulled down and sent to an exhibition in Australia. From there it travelled to London, where it was first displayed and then mothballed at the Victoria and Albert Museum for 40 years. It finally came home in 1925, except it didn’t. Instead of being returned to Ngāti Awa, the wharenui went to Otago Museum, where it remained until a Waitangi Tribunal judge ordered it be pulled apart one last time and transported north – home to Whakatāne, where it was restored and finally reopened in 2011.
Mataatua wharenui, then, is a building that’s more than a building. It’s a symbol of the colonial experience, of mana lost and regained, an embodiment of a people. Its story would and has made a great book. It doesn’t, though, sound much like an opera. Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead (Ngāi Terangi, Tūhoe) has composed one anyway.
“It was something I felt I really wanted to write,” says Whitehead. “The story had tremendous drama and it’s relevant to what’s happening today in our country and what has happened in our country.”
The Journey of Mataatua Whare gets its official premiere this month, when Dunedin Symphony Orchestra performs it as part of its Brahms & Mataatua: A Journey in Music concert. Before then, however, Hamilton’s Opus Orchestra gives a special performance for the people of Ngāti Awa.
As well as being appropriate, that first concert was part of an agreement between Whitehead and the iwi. Before writing began, she and DSO’s Tessa Peterson, who introduced the composer to the tale and has been heavily involved in development and production, visited Whakatāne to ask permission to use the story. The answer: go ahead, but make the first performance here.
The concert will take place in front of the wharenui itself. Whitehead is aware of the honour, but it means the musical forces will be a little smaller than in Dunedin. The full show, with three solo singers, a choir and orchestra, will be larger than any of Whitehead’s other operas. Both performances are presented “unstaged”, in that there is no set, and the players will be on stage, not in the pit.
Whitehead will attend both performances. Being in the audience to hear her own music, she says, is strange.
“The time seems to go very, very slowly and very, very fast simultaneously, and you’re aware of all the people around you. But a piece only comes alive when it’s played to an audience; it doesn’t exist until then.
Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, Brahms & Mataatua: A Journey in Music, Dunedin Town Hall, Saturday, June 28, 7.30pm.
