Te Ahurei Whakaari o Kōanga 2025 | Celebrating new Māori storytelling at the time of Kōanga.
Kōanga is a time when te taiao comes to life with new growth. Kōanga Festival cultivates new ideas and shares the bounty of new narratives through Māori performing arts.
Join us this September as we gather for the hakari of new Māori stories.
Kōanga Festival returns over two packed weekends from 12 – 21 September 2025. Across the festival, Māori storytellers thrive as new plays are developed and shared for the very first time; and the community comes together on Whānau Day to hear stories from around the world. Mark your rātaka e te whānau.
See the full Kōanga Festival 2025 Programme below. We look forward to seeing you there!
We’re delighted to share our 2025 Festival Programme below.
Whānau Day 2025
Sat 13 Sept, 10am – 3pm
FREE
To kick off the opening weekend of the 11th annual Kōanga Festival, Whānau Day is a free family-centred day celebrating storytelling in all its many forms and inspiring our youngest storytellers with pūrākau from around the world.
Bring the whole whānau along to experience a day packed full with activities, performances, food trucks, games, workshops, storytelling, and celebrate the return of Kōanga!
Kia Pohewatia with Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann
Saturday 14 September, 2 – 3.30pm
Kia Pohewatia is Atamira Dance Company’s choreographic residency programme dedicated to supporting Māori choreographers in developing new works. Through studio time, mentorship, and collaboration with Atamira artists, this residency offers a space for research, experimentation, and the early shaping of future projects.
Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann’s work draws on indigenous performance methodologies, activating space through whakapapa, memory, and embodied storytelling. Honouring place-based knowledge and the unique histories within each body, her work creates intimate connections between audiences and whenua through movement and non-linear narratives.
For more information about this work in development showing, see website listing here.
What Happened to Mary-Anne? by Brady Peeti
Fri 19 & Sat 20 September, 8.30pm | Sun 21 September, 4pm
What Happened to Mary-Anne? is a rock show adventure following the trying times of 36 year old trans nurse, Mary-Anne Wells, who in 1994, made 4 bad decisions that changed the trajectory of her life FOREVER!
Peppered with nostalgic, classic rock tunes that have had our audiences dancing and singing in their seats, we invite people to experience a live rock concert at the glorious Pig Bucket!
What Happened To Mary-Anne? is a fierce display of being radically authentic…
It is loud! It is brash! It is fiercely explosive and MORE!
For more information, see website here.
Playreading Pōmere with Leigh Minarapa & Ngahiriwa Rauhina
Fri 19 September, 6pm
Join us at Te Pou Theatre for an intimate evening of play readings, celebrating the development of new works by Māori playwrights at Kōanga Festival 2025.
Te Koha nā Leigh Minarapa
Te Koha is a family drama that fuses dystopian sci-fi and horror within the walls of a futuristic wharenui.
Set in the year 2045, Te Koha takes place in a world where technology is fully entwined with te ao Māori. Among these integrations is a digital koha system that is cashless, contactless, and entirely online.
Te Tau E nā Ngahiriwa Rauhina
He matarua a Mikaere Tipiwai. I te ao mārama, e ai ki a ia, he tohunga e tiaki ana i te hinengaro, te wairua, te tinana, te ngākau hoki. Engari ki ia te pō, he nanakia, he tinihanga, he kaitāhae kē. Heoi, ka aro ia ki a ratou e noho ki raro i te pouri, te taumaha rukiruki hoki, te hia whakamomori, ratou e whakapono ai hoki. E ai ki a ia, he mahi noa iho!
For more information and tickets, see website listing here.
Play Readings Pōhoroi with Lila Black & Zody Takurua
Sat 20 September, 5pm
Join us at Te Pou Theatre for an intimate evening of play readings, celebrating the development of new works by Māori playwrights at Kōanga Festival 2025.
Strange Signals: Aliens in Aotearoa nā Lila Black
Strange Signals! Aliens in Aotearoa is a story that follows the host of a conspiracy theory radio show whose world is turned upside down one stormy night, as they find themselves trapped, alone and terrified, with something lurking in the darkness.
WHŌRE nā Zody Takurua
WHŌRE tells the story of two young Māori navigating cultural disconnect and survival in a hyper-politicised Aotearoa. In a near-future governed by AI, where cash is obsolete and unemployment is treated as the ultimate crime, best friends, flatmates, and siblings, Kahu and Sissy cling to each to survive.
For more information and tickets, see website listing here.
Kia Pohewatia with Samara Reweti
Saturday 20 September, 3 – 4.30pm
Kia Pohewatia is Atamira Dance Company’s choreographic residency programme dedicated to supporting Māori choreographers in developing new works. Through studio time, mentorship, and collaboration with Atamira artists, this residency offers a space for research, experimentation, and the early shaping of future projects.
Kupi is a live installation by Samara Reweti exploring the politics of the gaze—investigating surveillance, intimacy, and perception. Through improvisation, movement, and technology, Kupi invites audiences into an immersive experience that challenges how we see and are seen. This showing will feature a sharing of Samara’s creative process and research.
For more information and tickets, see website listing here.
Te Arero Toi | A Free Writing Wānanga for Māori Kaituhi
Sun 21 September, 10am – 3pm
A free writing wānanga for Māori writers (of any experience level) who are interested in developing their storytelling practice i te reo Māori.
Learn from Tainui Tukiwaho and guest speakers about different approaches to writing in te reo Māori and some tools to help you develop your practice.
This wānanga is presented in association with Playmarket and will draw on the newly published Playmarket Guidelines Series: He Reo, He Mauri, He Mana: Te Reo Māori Theatre nā Tainui Tukiwaho & Hōhepa Waitoa.
For more information and registration, see website listing here.
