For the unversed, the incident talks about a time when a group of University of Auckland engineering students rehearsing their annual tradition of a mock haka were confronted by the activist group, He Taua. Its outcome forever changed race relations in New Zealand.
Post-play, the Herald caught up with writer and director Katie Wolfe. She paid credit to the people she had interviewed who were involved in the 1979 incident.
On the origins of creating such a play, Wolfe said it all started when she was doing an “artistic residency” at the Auckland Theatre Company and was given a “rare opportunity” to work on a play of her choice.
“So I thought of doing a verbatim play which I loved. At the same time, I always had an idea of doing something about the incident which I read about in Ranginui Walker’s book a long time ago.
“At one point when I asked people whether they knew about such an incident and even when I pitched it to the Auckland Theatre Company, not one person had heard about it.
“So from 2017 onwards I started to do my research and hold interviews with people involved such as the engineers and He Taua, with nothing more than one camera and microphone.”
Speaking on the impression she gained from interviewing the engineers, Wolfe said, “They were still unpacking it and I’m not joking because some of them had not spoken about it to anyone since 1979.
“They seemed quite defensive and believed that what they did was not wrong, but they did emphasise the fact that they wouldn’t do it now.”
She recalled an interview with one of the engineers called Simon who explained he didn’t really think much of it and didn’t like to be told what he should or should not do.
“However, there were varying reactions from other engineers who said they hadn’t been brought up in suburbs where there was much Māori interaction.But now they have a lot of interaction with the Māori community . . . so a big difference.”
What the play doesn’t touch upon much, she said, was the “incredibly racist” role of the media who took the side of the engineers and labelled He Taua as a violent gang organisation.
“Later they swept the story under the rug like it never happened. This is what you would call ‘wilful forgetting’ without having to deal with it.”
The big takeaway from her overall experience, she says, is that telling the story now is more relevant than it was before, “as it helps all New Zealanders to know their history and contextualise to the present”.
On-stage actors, namely Roimata Fox, Aidan O’Malley, Nī Dekkers-Reihana, Kauri Williams, Patrick Tafa, Lauren Gibson and Finley Hughes, were phenomenal in their portrayal of the multiple characters they brought to life as if we were in Auckland in 1979, when the fateful incident took place.
Wolfe’s direction is praiseworthy as she cleverly steers her actors to bring the incident to light.
She makes the audience realise how the engineers were a reflection of any average Kiwi who had non-indigenous roots and were detached from any cultural sensitivity.
Set design by John Verryt was minimalistic but effective. The absence of curtains throughout the show boosted the aspect of reality and not fiction.
Special credit for the mesmerising, bold display of kapa haka goes to Nikau Balme for his spectacular choreography.
Kingsley Spargo (sound designer and musical director), Jo Kilgour (lighting) and Alison Reid (costumes) did a splendid job as well.
