Photo: Miriama McDowell and Nī Dekkers-Reihana in Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking.

Translation work is usually a lonesome job. Maioha Ki Te Ao Tūroa Allen, who hails from Waikato Maniapoto, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Whakaue, and Ngāti Hauaroa, was recently involved in Auckland Theatre Company’s production Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking as the kaihāpai reo Māori and translator.

But this kaupapa has been different. “He tuatahitanga tēnei mō te ao whakaari”, says Allen. It’s a first in the theatre world.

It’s the story of a fictional 185-year-old matriarch, Tiri Mahana, and the important occurrences in her life since her birth on the 6 February, 1840. The original play, Woman Far Walking written by Witi Ihimaera, was commissioned 25 years ago for the 2000 New Zealand Festival, and was mostly in English.

This month, Tiri has reemerged on the stage of the ASB Waterfront Theatre for the first time in 25 years, under the direction of Katie Wolfe (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Toa Rangatira). Now, Tiri and her younger embodiment, Tilly, have been given a new voice. Not only has the script been rewritten, but it’s also in te reo Māori as much as it is in te reo Pākehā.

There are several things that make this production unique. For one, it’s the first time ATC has produced a work that is truly bilingual. And second, the translator has been part of the writing process from within the rehearsal room.

Allen says when this season’s production was first commissioned, he first thought the play would be done half in Māori and half in English. But through several wānanga with the writers and actors, it was clear that the languages should be interwoven. Being a story about memory, love, reclamation and loss, the play needed te reo Māori throughout its entirety to have audiences feel as if they were sitting at the feet of their old person, listening to her stories interrupted by occasional jests and scoldings.

“My intentions were to show audience members how much Māori they actually do know,” says Allen. “We’ve arrived at a time where a lot of reo Māori has seeped into everyday vocab, without really realising, especially for our whānau tauiwi, how much our ears are actually attuned to kupu Māori.”

One of his biggest considerations was: “What makes Tiri speak in te reo Māori?” Allen, Wolfe, and Tiri’s actors, Miriama McDowell (Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) and Nī Dekkers-Reihana (Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Porou), drew upon their own kaumātua and the way they would use Māori in expressions of affection, commands, emotions, and growlings.

“Koirā taku whāinga nui: kia puta tonu ko te reo māori”, Allen says, emphasising the last word. It was his goal to write so that Tiri’s voice sounded natural. And Allen credits the actors for their part in delivering Tiri’s reo in a way you’d assume they were fluent, native speakers of te reo Māori, when indeed they are on their own journey of language reclamation.

Reo learners and speakers watching the show will appreciate the generosity of the language features — the kīwaha, whakataukī and kupu whakarite — woven into the script, and how they make sense with the right delivery. Allen says that though many of the expressions may have been new to the actors, by the end of the rehearsals, they had fully understood their meaning and nailed the tone of delivery, too.

Sometimes translation work done in isolation ends up not quite fitting in the context, says Allen. “I te nuinga o te wā, nē, i ngā mahi whakawhiti reo Māori, ka tukuna te tuhinga ki te kaiwhakamāori, ka mutu, ka noho ia i tana takitahi, i tana kotahi te āta whakamāori i aua kōrero.”

[Most of the time in translation work, the writing will be given to the translator, and they will sit on their own and carefully translate the piece in isolation.]

Participating in the rehearsal room means Allen can listen to the actors and ask playwright Ihimaera, “koinei te ia o ō kōrero?”. This collaboration has enabled Allen to preserve the intention and essence of Ihimaera’s initial writing, while creating and shaping a new tongue for Tiri.

Helpfully for most audience members, Tiri’s reo is simple and direct. Allen says this was determined by the character that Ihimaera wrote. She’s tough, unfiltered, and stubborn. “That’s the type of reo we’re looking for,” says Allen. “The nannies that we see at home, they don’t speak in the rangi tūhāhā. They speak so you can understand.”  

Many of the colloquialisms added to the script reflect the reo Māori currently in use. Tiri opens an anecdote with “wanapanataima”, a transliteration of “once upon a time”, made famous by the podcast Taringa, and references “āporo tīwī” (Apple TV) and the turning of backs to Seymour at Waitangi. It’s all done to remind you that this 185-year-old is indeed breathing the same air as her 2025 audience.

The way the audience responds to the delivery of words from night to night makes a yardstick for Aotearoa’s level of bilingualism. Tiri speaks to the audience with a knowing sense of the various levels of Māori in the audience, acknowledging those who giggle at her quips in Māori before they are translated. Allen adds that it allows audiences to recognise the people in the audience who do understand te reo. It’s a statement to say, “ka ora tonu mātou, ake, ake, ake.”

“It’s a push on ‘ora’ rather than ‘whawhai’ and I feel like it’s within the ora that we reach understanding,” he adds.

It’s not just the growth in the country’s reo Māori proficiency that has changed since 2000. Allen alludes to the recent political attacks against Māori as a primary reason for the show’s rewriting and performance. “He tika. Me rongo te ao i te reo o Tiri, me ngā pānga kua pā ki te Tiriti o Waitangi, ōtira, e pā tonu nei.” 

[It’s the right time. The world needs to hear what Tiri has to say and about the actions that have impacted Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and continue to impact it.]

As an emerging theatre producer, Allen stresses the role of the arts in social change. He says for ATC to have faith in a script with this much reo Māori is significant in the current political climate and models allyship and partnership in 2025 and beyond.

“It doesn’t have to really be within policy or government policies that changes are made,” concludes Allen. “The changes are made on the ground. The changes are made with the people. So if we can make those changes without the Government, then let’s do that. And Tiri is the biggest statement of that, I believe.”

Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking is showing at the ASB Waterfront Theatre until 23 November 2025.