Te Rakau Theatre with support from Te Runanga o Toa Rangatira, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Te Puni Kokiri presents ‘The underTOW’, quartet of plays about the settlement of Wellington - past, present and future

Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitu te whenua - Man disappears but the land remains.

Te Rakau Theatre Company is excited to announce a new series of plays to bring Wellington’s rich history to life, with support from Te Runanga o Toa Rangatira, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and Te Puni Kokiri.

In support of Ngati Toa’s residency at Te Papa, Aotearoa’s longest surviving Maori theatre company, Te Rakau, will present their work over the next three years at the museum, taking audiences on a journey into Wellington’s past, present and future with writer Helen Pearse-Otene’s quartet of plays about the settlement of Wellington - The underTOW.

The series, beginning in 1840 and concluding with a look into the not –so- distant future, offers a uniquely Maori perspective on the city’s history and the ordinary people who achieved the extraordinary.

The project is a special one for Jim Moriarty, of Ngati Toa descent, who along with Jerry Banse formed Te Rakau in 1989. Jim has spent decades working throughout Aotearoa and around the world as an actor and director. Here in Aotearoa he and Te Rakau remain dedicated to supporting communities through the company's marae-based theatre programme.

“This series of plays about the settlement of Wellington, starting with The Ragged in 1840, has always been a passion of mine and Helen's - to unravel our collective history to better grow our understanding of each other; the diverse cultures that make up Aotearoa today, but in particular, the stories of our Maori and Pakeha ancestors. The underTOW series at Te Papa, the home of our national taonga, and in conjunction with Ngati Toa Rangatira's residency, provides a perfect opportunity to venture beyond historical amnesia and look at some truths about our collective and sometimes murky past.”Jim Moriarty

In her research for the series, Pearse-Otene drew on local stories, including a mixture of diary entries and letters by settlers. While the plays themselves are works of fiction they are deeply rooted in history and the sentiments of the times in which they are set.

“Although I consider Wellington to be “home” this town is still a mystery to me in many ways. I am often amazed by the old stories that are hidden beneath the surface of this shaky ground waiting to be uncovered - stories that speak of uncertainty, struggle, misunderstanding, resilience, and hope. To me, the underTOW series is a love letter to Poneke and to the treaty that made this country.” Helen Pearse-Otene

The series begins in 1840 with The Ragged, which explores early relationships between settlers, the New Zealand Company and the Tangata Whenua.

Part 2 - Dog and Bone is set in 1869 during the second Taranaki campaign of the New Zealand Wars and gives insight into the origin of the negative stereotypes that are perpetuated about Maori.

Part 3 is Public Works, set during World War I when the Public Works Act was used to build schools, churches, public buildings and war memorials, but also to alienate Maori from their lands.

The final instalment is The Landeaters where we face the day after tomorrow. 

Te Rakau Theatre looks forward to welcoming a diverse audience to Te Papa’s Soundings Theatre over the coming years to laugh, cry, learn, forget, understand, appreciate, challenge and, most of all, participate in Wellington’s history.

Part One: The Ragged (Wellington 1840)

By Helen Pearse-Otene

Directed by Jim Moriarty

Soundings Theatre, Te Papa, level 2

20 - 28 January 2015

Performance times: Tue 20 – Wed 28 Jan 2015: 7pm–8.30pm Fri 23 - Sat 24 Jan 2015: 1pm–2.30pm (no show Sun 25 Jan) 

Info: www.tepapa.govt.nz

Bookings: www.ticketek.co.nz

It’s 1840 and all the players are here,

at the bottom of the world,

at the dawn of the great new British Colony:

Port Nicholson, Wellington, New Zealand

41.2889° S, 174.7772° E

NZ Company representatives the Spooners - for them a grand residence in Thorndon, flooded shacks for the rest. Come to Wellington - the land is flat, the climate sub-tropical and bananas grow plentifully!

Newly arrived settler Samuel Kenning - “safe and well at the ends of the earth” and ready to claim his land and his better life.

Governor Hobson’s man, Crippen, quelling the settlers’ fears of an impending savage attack.

Missionary man Thaddeus Bly bringing the firm hand of god to Port Nicholson and its natives.

But what of those natives? Those M?ori over in ?whiro Bay? Wise but stubborn old chief Te Waip?uri and his people. Surely they are grateful for the presence of these sweet talking men, these landeaters whose mouths froth for the land…?

The Ragged follows the struggles of the ordinary, yet extraordinary people who called Wellington home in 1840 and is the first in writer Helen Pearse-Otene’s quartet of plays about the settlement, development and future of Wellington, The underTOW.