Puti Lancaster directed The Contours of Heaven after co-creating it with Ana Scotney in in 2017 for the Hawke's Bay Arts Festival. Below Puti shares her thoughts on the central question of the work.
Why did you create The Contours of Heaven?
The Contours of Heaven was an initial response to a question I had of the audiences that come to festivals and probably theatre in large. What does it take to see and value what we already have in our backyards? What will it take to see the people we live next door to and humanise the art of being in relationship with place, country and people? I think my work explores how we communicate and understand from our places of diversity, and asks do we even value this ability to try even when it doesn't make any sense? |
Why did you choose to explore this through the voices of rangatahi (young leaders)?
I wanted to see and hear what life was like through the eyes, words, and thoughts of rangatahi. Partly because being slightly mature I noticed strongly the social and economic demographic that attend arts festivals is more removed from the realities, vision, words, thoughts of rangatahi. That difference included class, social, economic and political viewing of difference, being Maori, being Pakeha, being rich in resources, being impoverished. There are sharp differences in the class structures that make up the Hawke's Bay. We are all neighbours and yet one group of neighbours knows nothing or finds it difficult to see the other.
I thought that I could offer a different perspective to the audiences that come to our show in the Hawke's Bay and to wider Aotearoa. To answer, through the eyes, voices and thoughts of rangatahi 'What does it take to determine who you can be?'
I wanted to see and hear what life was like through the eyes, words, and thoughts of rangatahi. Partly because being slightly mature I noticed strongly the social and economic demographic that attend arts festivals is more removed from the realities, vision, words, thoughts of rangatahi. That difference included class, social, economic and political viewing of difference, being Maori, being Pakeha, being rich in resources, being impoverished. There are sharp differences in the class structures that make up the Hawke's Bay. We are all neighbours and yet one group of neighbours knows nothing or finds it difficult to see the other.
I thought that I could offer a different perspective to the audiences that come to our show in the Hawke's Bay and to wider Aotearoa. To answer, through the eyes, voices and thoughts of rangatahi 'What does it take to determine who you can be?'
How has Tikanga Marae practice shaped the process and outcome of this work?
Tikanga Marae is a beautiful framework unique to this place Aotearoa. It reveals what is most needed in this time - an approach to encounter, to listen and to see the diversity in our humanity. It is a way of seeing and listening to what we already have. As a maker, as a tangata, I have, in all my makings and artistry, been drawn to real voices, real stories and real places. Voices that need to be heard, in this time, in this place Aotearoa. I have been exploring this since graduating from Te Kura Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School as a theatre director, and I have been working and living this purpose in my community and in all parts of me as a tangata. All of this for me as a maker and tangata has to be given in aroha. How is the environment and nature represented in The Contours of Heaven? Te Ao Marama (the natural world) is a world of family. We are not separated from place, and the environment. We are all part of family and if we see this as not separate from ourselves then maybe we will start to be in relationship and love the environment, the animals, the land, the moana. And if we care for something then we are less likely to want to be abusive to nature and people. I am inspired by the act of aroha being given and giving aroha - a small delicate kākano (seed) that needs to grow more. |
Click to listen to Puti Lancaster, Ana Chaya Scotney, and Owen McCarthy talk about their experience of creating The Contours of Heaven.
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