Foreign conquerors. Broken promises. Cultural genocide. A people's struggle to regain their land and retain the remnants of their culture. Maori playwright Witi Ihimaera explores them all in "Woman Far Walking," a Taki Rua of New Zealand production that sounds like the story of native Hawaiians. Finding their way
back home‘Woman Far Walking’ explores
the rebirth of Maori culture
By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comThe production is playing Oahu this weekend courtesy of Hawaii-based promoter Tim Bostock. Bostock brought another Taki Rua production, "Waiora," to Hawaii in 1999. "Waiora" was a look at the experiences of contemporary Maori. Playwright Ihimaera covers 160 years of Maori history in "Woman Far Walking."
Rachel House stars as Te Tiriti o Waitangi, a woman who is named to commemorate the Treaty of Waitangi signed by the Maori and the English in 1840, and who subsequently witnesses the betrayal of the Maori.
"The treaty is her namesake, and it haunts her throughout her life because the treaty was not fulfilled. The agreement made between the two people was not fulfilled," House said.
Te Tiriti o Waitangi joins the Maori patriots who take up arms against the English when the promises made at Waitangi are broken, witnesses the near extinction of the Maori during the worldwide influenza pandemic following World War I, takes part in the Maori land march protest of the 1970s and is there when the Maori protest New Zealand participation in sporting events against racially segregated "whites only" South African sports teams in the 1980s.
The concept of Ihimaera's story is reminiscent of "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman," an American TV movie that followed the life of a centenarian African-American woman who is born a slave and lives to see the end of legal segregation in the 1960s.
Where: Leeward Community College 'Woman Far Walking'
When: 8 p.m. today and tomorrow
Tickets: $10 to $20
Call: 455-0385
The Maori comprise "only about 11 percent" of the population of New Zealand. What the Maori were unable to keep by force of arms in the 19th and 20th centuries they're now seeking to regain in part by working within the political and cultural milieu of the dominant majority culture. "Woman Far Walking" comes out of the recent rebirth of Maori identity and cultural nationalism.
"Like the Hawaiians, there has been a revival of our language and culture in the last 40 years," House said. Young, politically conscious Maori took the lead in reviving the study and use of Te Reo (the Maori language) as a living language, resulting in programs similar to Hawaiian-language immersion classes focused on young children.
"I think it's going from strength to strength, and there's a great revival. It's mainly the young who are bringing it into the new century," House said.
As in Hawaii, there was a time when Maori children were punished if they spoke Te Reo in school.
"There are a lot of older people who have lost the language -- not through their own means -- which is a great sadness to us all, but the young are coming through," House said.
"Woman Far Walking" is performed primarily in English, "with a few Maori songs and haka (war dances)."
Although some Maori land claims have been resolved, House said the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi still have not been fulfilled.
Two hundred years ago, all of Aotearoa belonged to the Maori. Non-Maori now own most of it, and much of the pre-Western Maori culture has been lost.
"It's hard to know what a lot of the (pre-missionary) culture was. (Christianity) has been so established in our culture, it's hard to tell what was there beforehand. Lots of our legends are now very similar to those in the Bible, so either they are universal stories or there's something that has been passed down by missionaries that we've completely immersed into our culture."
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