Your occupation, job title, artistic discipline (or very brief description of what you do).

I am a proud descendant of Ngāti Ranginui and Ngai Te Rangi. I am a multidisciplinary artist with over 20 years of professional experience. I have directed 40+ musical productions, and have worked with all of the major theatre companies in Aotearoa.

I was the recipient of the 2018 Adam Play Award for Best Play by a Māori Playwright, and was Programme Leader of Performing Arts at Manukau Institute of Technology until 2020 when the Creative Arts faculty was disestablished.

I am the Kaiwhakahaere (Artistic Director) of Tuatara Collective, a charitable trust with a mission to tell our own stories authentically for stage and screen, and provide opportunities for rangatahi to step into the industry.

Tuatara Collective brings artists together to collaborate and turn our own Aotearoa stories into art. We believe that our voice, our music, and our dance is most powerful when our hearts are entwined in the roots of the work. Tuatara Collective produces and presents art to the general public, communities and schools, locally, nationally and internationally. All our projects have themes that provide the basis to facilitate kōrero within the community.

What cities/towns have you lived in (or spent more than a few months in) beginning with the place of your birth?

I was born and raised in Tauranga, studied at Victoria University in Wellington, then moved to Auckland where I lived for 20 years. I moved back to Tauranga in 2021.

 

What are the earliest stories you remember hearing? The ones that told you about the world?

In addition to the classic nursery rhymes and timeless fairytales, I was captivated by the children’s stories Are You My Mother? and Where the Wild Things Are, both of which ignited a sense of adventure, fuelled curiosity, and nurtured creativity and imagination.

Do you find solitude essential to your creative process, or do you thrive in collaborative environments as well?

There needs to be space for both – some quiet time in isolation is necessary to extract and organise the ideas and concepts floating around in my brain, often resembling a hazy, tangled birdnest of threads and seeds. Once the story has clarity and form, collaboration with others is vital to stretch it out, examine all the parts, and then mould it into some sort of theatrical shape.

 

What’s your favourite Bay of Plenty landscape, park, building, location, suburb, or side street? Why?

Mauao is a constant anchor for me. Earlier this year we presented an extraordinary piece of theatre that featured this original monologue:

Waiho a Mauao hei pou whenua mōku. Mauao, the constant. Mauao, the sentinel. Mauao, the beacon standing tall and proud at the entrance to te awanui.

Today, he is wrapped tightly in Tāne’s cloak. The outside is made of scratchy feathers and hard muka flax fibres, but the inside is warm and fluffy to touch, like the mink blanket I found in the cupboard, the one with the tiger on it that smells like me, and Cool Water.

Te Korowai o Tane keeps our tīpuna maunga warm in the mornings. It is freezing cold right at the top, way up high in the sky where we feel the most grounded.

This is where all of our stories are. Te iringa-kōrero. Every kōrero, every story, every pūrakau that has ever been told in Tauranga moana, on the marae, at the kura, in the kohanga reo, is kept here. The words of our ancestors, our loved ones who have gone before, are carried by the tides across the harbour. When they reach the base of the maunga they slither all the way up – some take the road, some brave the steep steps, some disregard the signs and go straight up through the trees to the summit.

There, the words hang in the air – te iringa-kōrero is the receptacle for all the kupu of Tauranga moana, he toi kupu. Just waiting for willing recipients to hear them. Next time you’re up there, have a listen. (He Toi Kupu Uhi Tai)

 

What word of advice would you offer an aspiring creative person?

Don’t be afraid of your weirdness. It is what makes creative people special.

What is your dream of happiness?

Good health, good company, good coffee. A full puku and a full bank account certainly helps too.

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