The tale of a hero and trickster in Māori culture had Auckland Point School and Kindergarten students walking on sunshine last week.
The Life of Maui chronicles how Maui implements a plan to catch the sun with his brother’s assistance and tie it to the earth so people can have longer days for their activities.
Different parts of Maui’s story were also unpacked in the performance including his birth, finding his mother and father, and fishing up Te Ika-a-Māui, the North Island.
Director Hetty Bradley says it was the first theatre production at the school in five years and the cast and crew left the stage with stronger grasps of Māori values and Māori performing arts.
“Our school operates with Māori values and we wish to strengthen our relationships with the tangata whenua and the iwi in the area, build relationships with our community, and understand and learn more about Aotearoa New Zealand history,” she says.
“This particular production supports all of those things, the children are using te reo Māori, the children are learning the narratives, and the children are enjoying the waiata, it’s a very rich experience.
“It also fits in well with daylight savings being around… we have [Tāwhirimātea], the [god of] wind, [Tangaroa] the [god of] the ocean, [Tane Mahuta] the [god of] the forest, and we have [Hine-te-Rēhia] the [goddess of] entertainment… these different dimensions also help to build children’s awareness.”
Hetty says Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman characters were introduced to provide heroism elements since Maui is also portrayed as a superhero with qualities like smart thinking, strength, and intelligence.
She says the tamariki [children] had primarily practised over three weeks and many of the outfits and props were made by themselves, staff and parents.
“I want to acknowledge that the Auckland Point School staff are a really amazing team, and no one person is the star above anybody… and we couldn’t do any of this without the children.
“They can step out and achieve something that they set their minds to.”
