File photo. Haka theatre show at Autaia. Photo: PETER JENNINGS
Next week the Aotea Centre in Auckland will come alive with a hākari, a feast of haka theatre - as Autaia returns for its fifth year.
Twelve schools from Auckland, Northland and Waikato will explore the theme Hawaiki Hou - Hawaiki is the ancestral home of Māori and hou means 'new' - through haka, dance and theatre.
Autaia artistic director Kura Te Ua encouraged anyone keen to see haka theatre to "bring a box of tissues".
Te Ua told Saturday Morning Autaia began five years ago with three schools giving 30-minute performances but as more and more schools got involved, the time for each performance decreased to 10 minutes, where rangatahi blended kapa haka, theatre and storytelling.
"So it's 10 minutes of haka theatre, there are three categories that we've broken haka theatre up for them to be able to explore."
The first category is the haka musical, drawing on kōrero tuku iho or oral traditions, but in the form of musical theatre. "Some schools really love that style," Te Ua said.
Second is haka movement, with a focus on choreography driven storytelling. "Some schools don't really like talking, they just like dancing and moving and telling their stories that way," she said.
Autaia artistic director Kura Te Ua. Photo: Taurite
Last is the haka bracket, which follows the format of kapa haka closely while adding some theatrical flair.
"You can clearly see it's a haka bracket, pretty much everything we want to do on a national stage that we can do here where all the rules are broken, there is no ceiling at all. And I think just in terms of the traditional kapa haka platform this is that space where they can use that 10 minutes just to do what [they] want."
What differentiated haka theatre from traditional kapa haka were the devices and conventions available in theatre - lights, sound effects, props and costumes, she said.
Te Ua said there were four pou, or posts, of haka theatre - first to create a platform for students to express themselves through haka theatre - second to align their learning with NCEA so they could achieve credits by taking part - third to build the capability of the theatre industry.
'I've been in the industry for a couple of decades now and I've noticed for a long time torutoru noa iho o mātau ki roto (there are very few Māori in the industry), and when we create our stuff and we go into a theatre we're not necessarily reflected in the way that we need to be."
And last was preserving kōrero tuku iho, she said.
"While Shakespeare is amazing and Broadway is amazing and we're inspired by those stories, these stories are unique to the kura and the way that they tell them."
The theme for this year's performances was Hawaiki Hou, or modern Hawaiki. Te Ua said at the end of last year during the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti that was a phrase she heard everywhere especially from rangatahi. As as topic, it was broad enough that they could create anything from it, she said.
"Often whakapapa is one of the things they like to draw on, kōrero tuku iho from either their whenua, their homes and look at how those stories can be brought into today to make something. First [time] schools involved usually do a whakapapa story of their kura, which is really beautiful to watch because then they all actually learn about the whakapapa of their kura that we find out most of them didn't actually know."
While Autaia was not a competition, Te Ua said there was mana involved, something that was part of Kapa Haka whether it was a competition or not.
"It's not a space where we're bringing our kura together or rangatahi together to battle against one another, it's really bringing them together to uplift each others stories."
Autaia is presented by Hawaiki TŪ and Auckland Live and will be held at the Aotea Center on 28 and 29 August.
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