Moon

The study of the night sky unites all people, inspires a sense of awe and connects deeply with our imaginations. It is the perfect starting place to make a new work.

There has been a resurgence of interest around the cultural perspectives of the Matariki star cluster and its significance for Māori. In his book Matariki: The Star of the Year, Dr Rangi Mātāmua points out the collision that has occurred when our knowledge of how the Matariki stars are referred to is mixed with other cultures’ perspectives. These stars have also played a significant role in a variety of cultures when it comes to growing crops, understanding weather patterns and navigating. We now use our mobile phones to navigate but the cosmos is the original internet!

We have invited young wordsmiths, rappers, lyricists and poets to explore what interests them in regard to the star in the Matariki cluster that is referred to as Hiwa-i-te-rangi, the star that is wished upon. Hiwa-i-te-rangi represents the heart and desires for the year ahead and aspirations for the future.

Over the years, I have developed strong creative partnerships with both Eden Mulholland (composer) and Rowan Pierce (AV designer) and so I’m very excited to be able to have them both working on this project with me.

Moon will incorporate movement, design, light, sound and text. The presentation will be an awesome time to share visual chapters, to expose and open up what we are interested in and to share the performance space with the audience. We invite you to come and investigate.