Upcoming live appearances
The Great Hall, Poetry with Puoro
Get cosy by the fire and listen to some star-filled poetry by Ōtautahi-based creatives, their words woven with the mesmerising sounds of taonga puoro. Featuring Isla Huia (Te Āti Haunui a-Pāpārangi, Uenuku), Josiah Morgan (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Maniapoto), Danielle O’Halloran (Samoan, Pākehā), and Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu). Part of the Christchurch Arts Centre’s Matariki Festival. Great Hall | From $15+BF. Booking recommended.
Mate Ururoa with Wellington Opera
World Premiere
'Kaua e mate wheke, mate ururoa’ | ‘Don’t die like an octopus, die like a hammerhead shark’
Gallipoli, 1915. A captain in the Native Contingent disobeys his commander’s orders to save the lives of his men.
A true story of the heroism and humiliation of Captain Roger Dansey, a Māori soldier on the frontline of a European war, Mate Ururoa is an urgent new chamber opera from legendary New Zealand composer Dame Gillian Whitehead (Ngai Te Rangi, Tuhoe).
With the originally planned 2021 premiere at New York’s Carnegie Hall cancelled due to the pandemic, Wellington Opera is proud to present the world premiere of this important new work by one of Aotearoa’s greatest living artists here in Pōneke.
Performed in English and te reo Māori by Māori-American baritone David Tahere alongside acclaimed taonga pūoro practitioner and mezzo Ariana Tikao, with director Sara Brodie and Aotearoa's leading new music ensemble, Stroma, conducted by Hamish McKeich.
11 July 7.30pm
12 July 7.30pm
13 July 2.30pm
Captain Roger Dansey – David Tahere
Taonga pūoro and voice - Ariana Tikao
Stroma
Conductor - Hamish McKeich
Director - Sara Brodie
Sung in te reo Māori and English, with surtitles
- - - -
Together with another World War I story:
Notes from the Front
by Ross Harris
Richard Greager - Tenor
Performance duration is approximately 55 minutes
Ariana Tikao at Cafe OTO, London
Ariana with pūtātara for Good Company Arts PEPE and Pōtaka Nautilus in Ōtepōti.
Ariana Tikao is a renowned practitioner and composer of taonga puoro, Māori traditional instruments. She is a New Zealand Arts Laureate who has gained recognition as a soloist with Aotearoa's principal orchestras and chamber groups such as Stroma and the New Zealand String Quartet. Her arts practice is rooted in her South Island Māori identity, with a palpable connection to place, and ancestral narratives. Ariana’s live performances move between realms, beyond time, and enable audiences to feel like they are being “bundled up in a big feather cloak and transported to another world”.
Ariana will perform a programme of vocal and taonga puoro music, both solo, and accompanied by members of the London-based Rothko Collective, including creative director and violist Dominic Stokes. They will perform some new works composed by Karl Sölve Steven (NZ/Sweden), as well as music by Luka Venter, Muriwai (Ariana Tikao and Bob Bickerton), multi-media works by Good Company Arts, and some improvisations.
https://www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/ariana-tikao/
Taonga puoro and poetry at Te Ara Ātea Library, Rolleston
Join Kāi Tahu musician and Arts Laureate Ariana Tikao for a special night of Taonga Puoro. Ariana will start the evening with an introduction to these unique ancestral instruments of Aotearoa, demonstrating their sounds. Then she will invite people to relax and be immersed in the mesmerising voices of her taonga, while she sings waiata and recites her moving poetry based on the stories of local pūrākau and places. A night not to be missed!
Ariana Tikao is a musician, composer and writer whose work explores her Kāi Tahu identity, mana wahine, and ancestral kōrero. She was awarded as a 2020 Arts Laureate by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.
All ages welcome.
Bookings required. https://tockify.com/selwynlibraries/detail/3210/1749796200000
Te Ara Ātea, 56 Tennyson Street, Rolleston.
$10 per person for Selwyn Libraries members, $20 non-members.
Payment can be made or charged to your library card on the day of the event.
If no spaces are available, please call (03) 318 7780 to be added to our waitlist.
Ariana Tikao playing pūkāea with sunset at Birdlings Flat, Kaitōrete.
Christchurch Arts Centre, Ariana Tikao with Jon Hooker
Jon Hooker and Ariana Tikao
Immerse yourself in the soul-warming waiata of Arts Laureate Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu), with the sparkling fingerstyle guitar of Jon Hooker. This is a rare opportunity to hear Ariana and Jon as a duo in a small, intimate venue. Cloisters Studio | From $20+BF*. Bookings recommended.
As part of Te Matatiki Toi Ora, The Christchurch Arts Centre’s Matariki Festival.
Auckland Writers Festival
Let The Dead Speak: Kia Kōrero Te Hunga Mate. Writing about ancestors or other figures from our pasts necessitates a collision between history and imagination. How much dramatic license can the creator have – be they novelist, historian, poet, musician or filmmaker – in depicting events they weren’t present at, in imagining conversations they never heard, in evoking the thoughts and emotions of those they never met?Esteemed historian Hirini Kaa (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongowhakaata) meets a dynamic range of creatives to discuss how they’ve navigated these very questions in their work: Whiti Hereaka (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa), winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction for Kurangaituku; Tim Worrall (Ngāi Tūhoe), filmmaker and author of 2024’s Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle Without End, set during the New Zealand Wars; and singer, poet, musician and author Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu). Book here.