Systems of power

Critically acclaimed play Waenga, produced by Te Rākau in partnership with Hurō Productions, invites audiences to consider their place within systems of power, and what it means to be an active participant in civic life.

Waenga is a whānau affair, created by sister and brother duo Hariata (Cousins, Whakapapa) and Tamati Moriarty (After The Party), directed by their father Jim Moriarty MNZM, with dramaturgy by their mother Helen Pearse-Otene.

The play premiered at Kia Mau Festival last year before being presented to hundreds of students across Aotearoa. Waenga has since expanded, with more songs, action, and important kōrero, and will be performed between the 19^th of June and the 5^th of July at the new Toi Aro art space on Market Lane, the first stop on their nationwide Theatre Marae tour.

The play follows Connie, a young wahine Māori caught in the legislative machinery of ‘move-on’ orders, who finds herself in a prison holding cell where everything is brought into question: her freedom, her future, and whether survival is even possible in today’s political landscape. Witnessing the inequity’s of Connie’s experience, her friend Peyton begins to realise what a Tangata Tiriti partnership really means, while Grayson, a young Māori lawyer, navigates a justice system that demands more than it gives.

A sharp, resonant story of systemic violence, racism, and hope, Waenga explores the challenges of rangatahi Māori trying to change the system from the outside and within.