10–13 Sep
TIRI: TE ARAROA WOMAN FAR WALKING WITI IHIMAERA (AOTEAROA | NZ)
An extraordinary mapping of Aotearoa through the eyes of Te Tiriti o Waitangi Mahana.
Theatre
Duration 1hr 35min (no interval)
Bilingual adaptation Witi Ihimaera, Katie Wolfe & Maioha Allen He Kōpara – Tā Haare Williams.
Creator of the acclaimed The Haka Party Incident, Katie Wolfe directs this epic tale of 186 year-old Tiri Mahana. Drawn from Witi Ihimaera’s play, Woman Far Walking, this bilingual retelling has been written by Witi Ihimaera, Katie Wolfe, Maioha Allen and Tā Haare Williams.
Accessibility Auslan Interpreted & Audio Described Performance 6:30pm, Sun 13 Sep
Content warning
This production contains strong language, sexual content, and descriptions of historical and colonial violence. Includes theatrical smoke and haze.
Director’s Note
The play you see tonight was built over a year of wānanga/workshops. Witi, Miriama, Nī and I have only recently learned our reo/Māori language, and we have all fallen in love with this Māori taonga/ treasure. We have been energised and inspired to bring it into our theatrical practice. With the guidance of our kaumatua/ elder Tā Haare Williams and pou tiaki reo/ language expert Maioha Allen, we met every two months during 2025 to create Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking. Our guiding principle was accessibility; we dreamt that every audience member, no matter what their experience of the Māori language, would follow this extraordinary story with our 186 year old matriarch. We created a technique that uses ‘linguistic bridges’, so that our English-speaking audiences have full access to the story, through translation, context and emotion — and it worked! During our inaugural season
we heard from audiences — ‘I could understand everything,’ ‘I didn’t realise I knew so much te reo Māori’. Music to our ears! As Māori language revitalisation goes from strength to strength in Aotearoa, the concept of bilingualism thrives. To hear our reo outside of formal ceremony, as a lively, witty, potent and emotional vehicle of story, makes us so proud. So please sit back and let Tiri take you on a journey through our nation’s extraordinary story of partnership under Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi. Hear the language, see the language and most importantly feel the language as we chant, haka, lament, laugh and speak to you from our hearts.
KATIE WOLFE DIRECTOR
Creatives An Auckland Theatre Company production Since 1993, Auckland Theatre Company has created theatre of scale and ambition, championed new work by Aotearoa’s theatre artists, inspired and engaged young people, and provided leadership across the performing arts. The company also programmes the ASB Waterfront Theatre in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter.
Creative Team Playwright
Witi Ihimaera
Director & Writer
Katie Wolfe
He Kōpara (elder)
Haare Williams
Kaihāpai Reo Māori & Translation
Maioha Allen
Set Design
John Verryt
Lighting Realiser/Operator
Jane Hakaraia
Costume Design
Te Ura Taripo-Hoskins
Composer & Sound Design
Kingsley Spargo
Projection Design
Owen McCarthy
Movement Director
Katrina George
Vocal Direction
Cherie Moore
Pou Tiaki Kaupapa Māori
Merepaea Dunn
Cast Miriama McDowell
Tiri
Nī Dekkers-Reihana
Tilly
Production Team Production Manager
Emmanuel Reynaud
Company Stage Manager
Hannah Tasker-Poland
Lighting Operator
Jane Hakaraia
Sound Operator
Paige Pomana
Techical Manager / Projection Realiser
Tim Jansen
ATC Senior Producer
Sums Selvarajan
Hero image
Signý Björg
Production and rehearsal images
Andi Crown
About the artists
Tā Haare Williams
Witi Ihimaera
Tā Haare Williams was born in Te Karaka. At only a few months old, he became a living koha to his Tūhoe grandparents. He was raised between Ōhiwa and Ōpōtiki, not speaking English until schooling started at seven.
Witi Ihimaera DCNZM QSM is the writer of three plays: Two Taniwha, Woman Far Walking and All Our Sons.
Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Rongowhakaata, Tūhoe
His grandparents Rimaha and Wairemana gardened, fished and preserved food according to maramataka and Haare was immersed in the practices of this generation. They exposed him to best practices for coexisting with the natural world and a diversity of mātauranga. He received spiritual substenance through Te Kooti’s scripture-based waiata. Ringatū writings were inspirational texts and grew his love of language, poetry and narrative.
Te Whānau a Kai, Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki, Ngāti Ira, Ngāti Porou
His major literary career, however, lies in Māori fiction, non-fiction and film. His first book was Pounamu, Pounamu and was followed by Tangi, the first novel by a Māori writer. Over a 50-year career, highlights include The Whale Rider and Nights in the Gardens of Spain. Ihimaera’s most recent books are Te Kaikaukau (The Swimmer) and The Star Path. He plans to write his first novel in te reo in 2027. In 2026, Witi Ihimaera was appointed as an Icon Whakamana Hiranga. This is a living circle of Aotearoa New Zealand’s 20 most significant artists.
Katie Wolfe
Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama Katie Wolfe is one of Aotearoa’s leading storytellers, acclaimed for weaving history and memory into powerful theatre and film. She is the creator of The Haka Party Incident, which premiered at Auckland Theatre Company in 2021 and then toured nationally, winning numerous awards. Her films Redemption, This Is Her and Kawa (an adaptation of Witi Ihimaera’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain) have garnered many awards internationally. The documentary film version of The Haka Party Incident premiered in 2023 and has played at film festivals in North America, Europe and Australia.
Maioha Allen
Ngāti Apakura, Kahungunu Whānui, Ngāti Hauaroa, Whakaue, Ngāti Porou Born and raised in Waikato, Maioha Allen is an emerging Māori producer and artist. With a strong performance background, Maioha grew up immersed in the world of kapa haka through Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato, Te Ahikaaroa and Te Haona Kaha. This passion for the stage led to the honour of performing in Witi Ihimaera’s opera Flowing Water, an experience that deepened their commitment to Indigenous storytelling. Since then, Maioha has contributed to a range of productions, including Hemo is Home, Kōpū, Mahuika, The Handlers, Te Tangi a Te Tūī and most recently, KARE TAO.
Nī Dekkers-Reihana
Miriama McDowell
Nī Dekkers-Reihana has worked in theatre for over 15 years. They have performed on main stages across Aotearoa, winning performance awards for The Haka Party Incident, Anahera, The Mooncake and The Kūmara, Pakaru, 4 Billion Likes! and more.
Miriama McDowell has worked in the theatre and screen industry for over twenty years. She is an actor, director, writer and dramaturg. Miriama is a graduate of Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, a founding member of Intimacy Coordinators Aotearoa and a board member of Equity NZ.
Nī is also a director in theatre. Having won Best Director in the NZ Fringe Festival in 2017, they were also the rehearsal director of The Haka Party Incident in 2023. In 2024, they directed Sam Brooks’ Lads on the Island. Recently they directed a sold-out season of Sean Rivera’s May Mga Uod Ang Utak Mo and Nick Payne’s Constellations, which they also adapted for Aotearoa.
Miriama’s work has spanned the big screen, the small screen and the theatre. Miriama has worked with all the major theatre companies in Aotearoa. She won a NZ TV Awards best actress award in 2020 for her role in Head High and a NZ Film Moa Best Actress Award in 2017 for film The Great Maiden’s Blush.
Ngāpuhi
Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi
In 2023, Miriama took a year out to learn te reo Māori, which culminated in a new play in te reo Māori, Rangirua. Miriama was delighted to be awarded an Arts Laureate in 2024.
Te Ura Taripo-Hoskins
Jane Hakaraia
Costume Design
Lighting Design
TRAINING Diploma Fashion Design, AUT (2009).
TRAINING Bachelor of Design, Unitec (2009); Honours (Product Design), AUT (2011).
Ngāti Hau, Ngāpuhi, Rarotonga
FOR ATC Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking was Te Ura’s debut at Auckland Theatre Company.
Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Kapu
FOR ATC The Effect; Scenes from the Climate Era; Astroman; The Heretic; Paniora!
OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES Black Ties; Sing To Me; Kōpū. SCREEN: Tangata Pai; Ahikaroa; Creamerie; Vegas; Ka Whawhai Tonu; We Are Still Here.
OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES Ration the Queen’s Veges; Te Tangi a te Tūī; A Doll’s House, Part 2; Neke; I LOVE YOU G; Nicola Cheeseman is Back; The Handlers; Kōpū; The Valentina; Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner.
John Verryt
Kingsley Spargo
TRAINING Theatre Corporate; Mercury Theatre.
TRAINING PhD in Music, University of Auckland (2026); Master of Music (1st Class – Hons), University of Auckland (2021).
Set Design
DESIGNS FOR ATC MARY: The Birth of Frankenstein; Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express; Peter Pan; King Lear; Long Day’s Journey into Night; The Haka Party Incident; Jesus Christ Superstar; Once on Chunuk Bair; Twelfth Night; Hair; Death of a Salesman; Rendered; The Pillowman; The Cripple of Inishmaan. OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES Nightsong, Mercury Theatre, Theatre at Large, Indian Ink Theatre, Silo Theatre, Red Leap Theatre, Theatre Corporate. OTHER World of Wearable Art, New Zealand Opera, Black Grace, Atamira, Ōkāreka, Douglas Wright, Malia Johnston, Michael Parmenter.
Composer & Sound Design
FOR ATC The Haka Party Incident; Things That Matter. OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES Floating Islands; White Cloud. SCREEN Composer and kaiako waiata for The Haka Party Incident film. OTHER Co-founder of Kim Meredith Gallery; solo artist album Chasing Spirits; composer/ performer with electroacoustic duo Alargo.
Katrina George
Owen Iosefa McCarthy
Movement Direction
Projection Design
TRAINING Bachelor of Performing Arts (Acting), Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School (2017).
TRAINING Bachelor of Design (Stage & Screen), Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School (2014).
FOR ATC As Assistant Director: Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking; Mary: The Birth of Frankenstein; Romeo & Juliet. Movement Direction: Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking; Romeo & Juliet; The Effect.
FOR ATC Chekhov’s The Seagull.
Sāmoa: Malie, Pākehā
OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES Direction: Moe Miti; AHI After Mahuika. Movement Direction: Emilia.
Cherie Moore Ngāti Porou
Vocal Direction TRAINING The Voice Centre London (2023); The Actors’ Program (2013); University of Auckland (2007). FOR ATC Vocal Coach: Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking; Romeo & Juliet; a mixtape for maladies; The Effect; Witi’s Wāhine; Guys and Dolls. OTHER THEATRE INCLUDES Vocal Direction: Romeo & Juliet; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Moe Miti; Fake News; Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner; My Heart Goes Thadak Thadak. Performance: AHI After Mahuika; The Trojan War; Next To Normal; Birdland; Into The Woods; Twelfth Night; The Tempest. Direction: The Trial; Spring Awakening; Radium Girls; Vanity Fair; The Candidate; School Of Rock; JTFNZ; Legally Blonde.
Palauli Sāmoa, Pākehā
OTHER THEATRE Flock: Siblings. Atamira: Ka Mua Ka Muri. Red Leap: Moe Miti; Owls Do Cry. EBKM: Gravity & Grace. Barbarian Productions: Soft N Hard. Other Thelma & Louise Don’t Die (Julia Croft & Nisha Madhan); Speargrass Skies Run Run (Puti Lancaster).
Merepaea Dunn
Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri, Ngāpuhi, Tūhoe, Whakatōhea, Ngāti Porou, Te Arawa
Pou Tiaki Kaupapa Māori Merepaea Dunn is a Māori cultural advisor, strategist and governance professional. Grounded in te ao Māori, her work centres on tikanga, te reo Māori and strengthening kaupapa across community, governance and creative settings. Following her contribution to the original development of Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking, Merepaea returns as Pou Tiaki Kaupapa Māori, supporting the production’s kaupapa, tikanga, reo and wairua as it tours Aotearoa and internationally.
Further Watching Costume Design in Focus
In Rehearsals
Acknowledgements
Woman Far Walking by Witi Ihimaera was originally commissioned by the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts in 2000. Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking by Witi Ihimaera, Katie Wolfe, Maioha Allen & Haare Williams was commissioned by Auckland Theatre Company in 2025. Auckland Theatre Company acknowledges the support of Creative New Zealand and Performing Arts Network New Zealand. Presented by Brisbane Festival in association with Brisbane Powerhouse. This project is supported through the Giving Program by Tim Fairfax AC and Gina Fairfax AC.
brisbanefestival.com.au