MORE OUTSTANDING SHOWS ANNOUNCED FOR KIA MAU FESTIVAL
A showcase of contemporary Indigenous arts, Kia Mau Festival, proudly announces a groundbreaking international work and two homegrown triumphs for its already impressive 2025 programme. Running from 30 May – 14 June in Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui, the full performance programme will be launched on 31 March, with the visual arts programme to come in April.
An exploration of identity, desire, family, and of being disabled and Pasifika, AIGA (‘Āiga’ is Sāmoan for family / whānau) is ground-breaking theatre told through the lens of Lusi Faiva (Patamea, Savai’i, Sāmoa), recent recipient of the FAME Mid-Career Award. Presented by Touch Compass and performed by an ensemble of women, non-binary, disabled, non-disabled, Pasifika and Māori creatives, AIGA will make its Wellington premiere during Kia Mau following hugely successful performances in Tāmaki Makaurau and Whakatū.
Joining the previously announced Heart of Stone and The Aotearoans, is the third recipient of Kia Mau’s new initiative He Toi Puaki – DARK!DARK!DARK!. Known for their formidable live presence, DARK!DARK!DARK! is the latest work from the dynamic and award-winning creative duo CONJAH aka Jahra Wasasala (Fijian/Pākehā) and ooshcon (Sāmoan/Pākehā). CONJAH are artists, world-builders, dance-theatre makers, poets, visual artists, film-makers, vocalists, writers and entity-benders. Amidst a collapse and a birthing, this immersive world studies the dark dance of subterranean life-forms in the South Pacific mirroring the dark dance into our own interior depths.
Marking its first international performance, Kia Mau presents the Aotearoa premiere of plenty serious TALK TALK, as part of the festival’s He Ngaru Nui programme. Defying genre, this bold blend of dance theatre, stand-up, spoken word and more weaves gleeful humour with sharp observation. Acclaimed Indigenous Australian creator and performer Vicki van Hout (Wiradjuri) brings the behind-the-scenes realities of First Nations arts to the forefront – unpacking community expectations, consultative processes, and artistic obligations, illuminating the sophistication of the world’s oldest living culture.