Te Pou Theatre Rangatahi Collective empowers Indigenous emerging artists by fostering connection, and kaupapa-driven collaboration to create meaningful impact within our communities and the arts.
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Empower Emerging Indigenous Artists
Create platforms, mentorship, and leadership opportunities that support artistic and personal growth.
Bridge Pathways in Access and Opportunity
Identify and address barriers of participation and access to the performing arts sector for emerging indigenous artists.
Foster Connection and Community
Build strong relationships between artists, communities, and industry through events, hui, and collaborative spaces.
Enable Kaupapa-Driven Collaboration
Support projects and partnerships grounded in shared values, culture, and purpose.
Create Opportunities for Meaningful Impact
Champion initiatives that allow artists to influence their communities, tell their stories, and contribute to positive change.
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Abbie Rogers is a Māori dancer, producer, and choreographer of Kāi Tahu and Te Arawa descent, born in Ōtautahi and currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau. She has collaborated with both established companies and independent artists, contributing to a diverse range of performances, including stage productions, site-specific works, and VR films.
Since 2019, Abbie has been a key member of Atamira Dance Company, performing in notable works such as Ka Tiri o te Moana (2025), Rongo Whakapā (2025), Ka Mua Ka Muri (2024), Te Wheke (2021–2023), Tomo VR (2022), and others. Her work with Atamira has taken her on international tours to Vancouver, Hawai‘i, New York, San Diego, and across Aotearoa. She has also had the privilege of performing with Ōkāreka Dance Company on Mana Wahine, as well as with artists and companies including Gabrielle Thomas, Taiaroa Royal, Unitec Dance, Louise Pōtiki Bryant, and Sean MacDonald.
In addition to her performance career, Abbie has contributed to Atamira’s operations as the company’s Marketing and Education Producer for the past five years. She oversees Atamira’s education projects, coordinates marketing initiatives, and manages the company’s social media presence.
Abbie was also the producer of the award-winning endurance-based dance work The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave (Oli Mathiesen), which premiered in February 2024 and has since toured nationally and internationally, including seasons in Australia (2024–2025) and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for a 23-show run in 2025.
She is passionate about creating meaningful connections across arts communities, with a particular focus on uplifting Indigenous and emerging arts practitioners. As a member and Co-chair of Te Pou Theatre’s NextGen Council, Abbie is excited to help shape bold new possibilities for the future of the arts, fostering greater collaboration, visibility, and pathways for rangatahi Māori to thrive as artists, leaders, and changemakers.
Ko Eden Webster tēnei he uri nō te Tai Tokerau me te motu o Niue ā, kua tipu ake ia kei Tāmaki Makaurau. Eden is a born and bred Westie and so proud of it. Creativity has always surrounded her as both sides of her whakapapa boast writers, composers, visual artists, handicraft artists, weavers and dreamers. She is a kaihaka for Te Rōpū Manutaki and also plays a part in the organisational side of things for the kapa.
Eden joined Te Pou as a Pia (intern) under the ‘He Kai Kei Aku Ringa Programme’ where she learnt about all things producing. Following her internship in mid 2024, Eden became the Marketing and Communications kaimahi.
Jonjon Tolovae is a Fa’afafine writer, poet, comedian and artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau whose work interrogates the intersections of gender, cultural identity and diasporic memory within contemporary Pacific arts praxis. Grounded in the intellectual and aesthetic traditions of Moana storytelling, her practice engages critically with the politics of representation, the instability of normative gender frameworks and the ongoing negotiation of selfhood in postcolonial contexts.
Working across poetry, theatre and community, she employs a methodology that combines embodied knowledge, archival consciousness and linguistic experimentation. Jonjon’s performances are characterised by a deliberate tension between vulnerability and analytic precision, utilising affect as a site of resistance while maintaining rigorous attention to structure, rhythm and theoretical coherence.
Katrina (she/they) is a takatāpui multi-disciplinary maker, of Māori (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri) and European (The Fox Family, Cornwall) descent. She is currently based in Tāmaki Makarau but calls Heretaunga home.
She graduated from Unitec with a BPSA majoring in Contemporary Dance in 2025 and is currently completing a Certificate in Apparel and Fashion Technology at Whitecliffe. She is interested in the intersection of structured silhouettes and the body’s movement. Katrina enjoys designing in a way that removes us from the everyday and transports us into spaces that feel performative and heavily adorned.
During her studies at Unitec, she worked with dance practitioners Jessie McCall, Abbie Rogers, and Kasina Campbell for Unitec Showcase 2023. Eddie Elliot and Sarah Foster-Sproull for Unitec Showcase 2024. Tori Manley-Tapu, Aloali’i Tapu, and Louise Pōtiki Bryant for Unitec Showcase 2025. Other public performances include collaborative works choreographed by the Unitec graduating class of 2025, in the shows ‘Colab 2’ (2024), and ‘TBH: To Be Heard’ (2025), ‘Avante-Era’ by Komai Waqalevu and Nathan Albay Gacusan as part of the Pacific Dance Festival (2025), New Zealand Dance Company’s Tāmaki Tour (2025), and ‘Animal Reaction’ (music video) by Calla Ursa (2025). She performed self-choreographed pieces for the opening and closing of a Te Wiki O Āhua Aotearoa fashion show (2025). Katrina’s choreographic work includes ‘Splinter Batch’ (2024), in collaboration with Felicity Dowden, and ‘An Intrinsic Current’, ‘An Emerging Current’, ‘An Overwhelmed Current’ (2025), in collaboration with Abby Knowles.
Outside of her studies, she received the Overall Supreme Designer of the Year Award at the Hawke’s Bay Edible Fashion Awards (2022). This design, titled ‘Can-Tab-aret’, was centred on reusing can-tabs and enabled her to research and foster her investment in sustainable practices.
Other garment exploration includes costuming assistance for ‘Quiet Rituals’ (2025). She assisted with, ‘At 3am I am here with the Red Dream’ by Jake Starrs and ‘Dissolving the Apricot Corridor’ by Grace Lewis (2025) and did the full design and construction for ‘Giving Over’ by Stella Grace Seawright (2025). Katrina also designed and made costumes for ‘Operamoth’ (2026), which were described as ‘organic, rough-edged costumes [that] added a beautifully intentional, raw periphery to the work’ (Theatreview by Grace Lewis).
Maioha Allen is a Māori creative practitioner, producer, and facilitator whose work sits at the intersection of theatre, language revitalisation, and community development. With a passion for kaupapa Māori storytelling, Maioha creates engaging experiences that celebrate identity, whakapapa, and collective connection through performance, education, and wānanga.
Their work spans theatre production, event coordination, creative development, and te reo Māori facilitation, often supporting projects grounded in toi Māori and community wellbeing. Maioha has contributed to a range of initiatives including Māori theatre productions, kapa haka and reo wānanga, holistic community events, and rangatahi-focused creative spaces.
Driven by the belief that creativity is a vehicle for transformation and connection, Maioha is dedicated to nurturing environments where people feel inspired to learn, share, and grow. Their approach combines warmth, innovation, and cultural integrity, helping bring meaningful kaupapa to life in ways that are accessible, empowering, and deeply rooted in Māori values.
Paige Pomana (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Rongomaiwahine) is a sound artist originally from Te Tairāwhiti. Working across film, television, music production, and theatre design, their practice explores the intersections of sound, memory, and story, and the ways auditory worlds can hold, transform, and illuminate the human experience. Paige approaches audio as both craft and whakapapa: an unseen force capable of weaving together emotion, atmosphere, and connection across time and space. Their creative contributions include RuPaul’s Drag Race, Celebrity Treasure Island, Kōpū, Tiri: Te Araroa | Woman Far Walking, What Happened to Mary-Anne? and May Mga Uod Ang Utak Mo.
Rainton Oneroa is a Māori actor, playwright, and arts advocate based in Tāmaki Makaurau. He works across theatre and screen and is passionate about creating and supporting work that reflects the richness and diversity of Aotearoa’s communities. As both a performer and writer, he is interested in the development of new New Zealand stories and the role the arts play in bringing people together. Rainton is committed to fostering opportunities for emerging artists and helping build a vibrant, accessible, and sustainable creative sector. As a council member, he brings the perspective of a working creative, a collaborative approach, and a strong belief in the value of storytelling, artistic expression, and community engagement.
Renee Wiki is a producer, stage manager and creative practitioner.
Mauri Ora ki a tātou,
He uri tēnei nō ngā hau e whā – e kīa nei, Nō Ngāpuhi, Te Ātiawa, Te Whānau a Ruataupare, Ngāti Tama ki whakatū, Ngāti Toa Rangatira anō hoki.
I was born and raised in Wellington and graduated from Toi Whakaari in 2020. I moved to Tāmakimakaurau in 2023, working as a director for Waka Huia and Pathfinders, finding my feet in documentary storytelling. After a 3 year hiatus in acting, ka tū au hei kaiwhakaari mō Neke i te festival o Koanga 2024. Since then, my wairua has been drawn back to my first love of acting. I realised I missed my people and fellow artists in the theatre and live scene. My tohu came through an email of being a part of this awesome kāhui. I am excited to be a part of Te Pou next gen Council- who are all passionate and forward thinking about how we can foster more opportunities for rangatahi māori. Nau mai!
Tuakoi Ohia is of Māori and Pākehā decent, hailing from the tribes of Ngāti Hine, Mataatua, Tainui, Te Arawa, Te Āti Awa and Ngāi Pākeha.
Tuakoi Ohia is an actor, writer for stage and screen, theatre maker and music artist. Her debut in acting started in 2018 when she was cast in a drama T.V series, ‘Ahikaaroa’. Not long after, she landed the role of Hera in the ‘one of a kind’ indigenous theatre show BLACK TIES touring across Australia and Aotearoa. She is the writer of the play ‘KŌPŪ’, a collaborative theatre piece celebrating ira wahine through comedy, music, kapa haka and smack talking. She voiced Pepa in Disney Encanto Reo Maori and Fiona in Dreamworks Shrek Reo Māori. She has also written a comedic musical short film ‘Chatterbox’ alongside her friends Brady Peeti and Tainui Tukiwaho. This film is about a young wahine and her talking teke. This film is a nod to our naughty nannies and a reminder for us to listen to our bodies. She is passionate about projects that require joy, humour and positive representation of Māori on our platforms.
Our Te Pou Theatre Rangatahi Collective meet regularly through out the year and are supported by the wider Te Pou Theatre team with funding from Creative NZ & Sky City Auckland Community Trust.
If you’d like to get in touch with Te Pou Rangatahi Collective, please email abbie@tepoutheatre.nz with any pātai.
Keep an eye out, initiatives and opportunities for indigenous creative rangatahi at Te Pou Theatre soon to be announced!
Kāore i ārikarika ki ngā kaitautoko
Our full programme of Te Pou led shows, events and development opportunities.
Opportunities for development and connection for the Māori performing arts community.
Our creative spaces at Te Pou Theatre