Roma Potiki

Roma Potiki (born 1958[1]) is a New Zealand poet, playwright, visual artist, curator, theatre actor and director, as well as a commentator on Māori theatre.[2][3][4] She is of Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri and Ngāti Rangitihi descent.[5] As well as being a published poet, her work is included in the permanent collection of the Dowse Art Museum.[6]

Roma Potiki
Born(1958-02-16)16 February 1958
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Known forpoetry, theatre commentary, theatre, visual arts

Background

Roma Potiki was born in Lower Hutt, a city in the Wellington Region, and grew up in the suburb Wainuiomata.[7] As a child she attended Wainuiomata Primary School, Woodhatton Primary School, Wainuiomata College and Wellington High School.[8] Her first play was written while at primary school and she also started writing poetry at school.[8]

Career

Roma Potiki was involved in contemporary Māori theatre in early formative years. She was in a play performed by Te Ika A Maui Players in 1978 called Death of the Land by Rore Hapipi's (Rowley Habib).[8] She went on to help form the Māori theatre company Maranga Mai in 1979.[9] This company was linked to the Māori protest movement and they toured a theatre production in 1979 - 1980 to marae and schools.[8] The play Maranga Mai that they presented was a fifty minute story of Māori activism. It started in with the 1975 Māori Land March, included reference to occupations at the Raglan Golf Course, Bastion Point and the protests by Ngā Tamatoa during Waitangi Day. People involved included Brian Potiki, Anna Meihana, Hori Hapimana, Henare Hapimana, Buffy Pihema, Cyril Chapman, Jacki Davidson and Liz Marsden. The play included song, poetry, movement and drama.[10]

In 1990 she was a founding director of another theatre company He Ara Hou. They performed and toured a play called Whatungarongaro.[9][5] This play was directed by Potiki and John Anderson and devised over nine months with the company members. Potiki had previously done workshops with a theatre company PETA (Philippines Educational Theatre Association) and was influenced by their way of working.[11][12]

Roma Potiki's writing includes poetry contribution to many anthologies, as well as published volumes. She has written the forward to books of New Zealand Māori plays and contributed text to exhibition catalogues. As a fine artist Potiki has exhibited art work and one of her pieces Hinewai is in the collection of the Dowse Art Museum.[5]

Legacy

The poem Stones in her Mouth by Potiki inspired contemporary New Zealand choreographer Lemi Ponifasio to create a community leadership project also called Stones in her Mouth in 2013. This involved a group of Māori women holding workshops at marae and writing text that was then performed.[13]

He Ara Hou and Whatungarongaro

Before actor Rena Owen was in Once Were Warriors she performed a similar role in theatre company He Ara Hou's play Whatungarongaro that Potiki a co-creator of. Owens performance in Whatungarongaro influenced her being cast in Once Were Warriors.[14]

Playwright and director of theatre company Tawata Productions Hone Kouka cites seeing Whatungarongaro in 1991 at the Depot Theatre in Wellington as being life changing and convincing him that innovative Māori theatre had no boundaries.[15] Another New Zealand theatre and film writer Briar Grace-Smith was an assistant to Potiki and learnt from the process of making Whatungarongaro.[11]

Published works

Poetry
  • Stones in Her Mouth (1992)[7] Publisher: Tamakimakaurau, N.Z. IWA[16]
  • Roma Potiki (1995) Publisher: Wai-te-ata Press, Wellington, N.Z.
  • Shaking the Tree (1998)[7] Publisher: Steele Roberts, Wellington, N.Z.
  • Oriori: a Māori Child is Born: From Conception to Birth (1999)[7] co-authored with Robyn Kahukiwa. Publisher: Wai-te-ata Press, Wellington, NZ

Plays
  • Whatungarongaro (1990) Roma Potiki and He Ara Hou. Published in Ta Matou Mangai: Three Plays of the 1990s: Irirangi Bay, Taku Mangai, Whatungarongaro (1999) ed. Hone Kouka. Publisher: Victoria University Press, Wellington, N.Z.
  • Going Home (1996)[7]

Other
  • Introduction - He Reo Hou: 5 Plays by Māori playwrights (1991) ed. Simon Garrett. Publisher: Playmarket, Wellington, N.Z.
  • Robyn Kahukiwa : Works from 1985 - 1995 (1995) Exhibition catalogue. Includes essays by Anne Kirker and Jonathan Mané-Wheoki, and an interview by Roma Potiki. Publisher: Bowen Galleries, Wellington N.Z.[16]
  • Foreword - Waiora (1997) by Hone Kouka
  • Memory Walking (1998) "Exhibition of contemporary paintings, prints and installation work by eight women artists from around the world." Text by Roma Potiki. Exhibiting artists: Lubaina Himid, Michi itami, Robyn Kahukiwa, Jean LaMarr, Lily Laita, Debra Priestly, Maud Sulter, Judy Watson. Publisher: City Gallery, Wellington N.Z.[16]

Anthologies

Roma Potiki is widely published in anthologies.[17]

Selected list:

  • Te Ao Marama: Vol 4: Contemporary Maori Writing for Children (1994) ed. Witi Ihimaera
  • Oxford (1997)
  • My Heart Goes Swimming : New Zealand Love Poems (2000) ed. Jenny Bornholdt, Gregory O'Brien
  • Wendt, Albert; Whaitiri, Reina; Sullivan, Robert, eds. (September 2010). Mauri Ola: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English. Auckland: Auckland UP. ISBN 9781869404482.

Further reading

References
  1. Toi te Ao : Aotearoa world celebration of indigenous art and history, Te Taumata Gallery, Auckland, 1993. Wellington [N.Z.]: Toi Te Ao Art Committee. 1993. p. 32. ISBN 0473023113. OCLC 154557391.
  2. Robinson, Roger; Wattie, Nelson, eds. (1998). The Oxford companion to New Zealand literature. Melbourne, Victoria.: Oxford University Press. pp. 448–449. ISBN 0195583485. OCLC 40598609.
  3. Odom, Glenn A. (2017). World theories of theatre. London: Taylor & Francis. pp. 216–218. ISBN 9781317586289. OCLC 988290202.
  4. Balme, Christopher B. (1999). Decolonizing the stage : theatrical syncretism and post-colonial drama. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 64–65. ISBN 0198184441. OCLC 39655593.
  5. Underhill, Bridget. "Roma Potiki". www.komako.org.nz. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  6. "Potiki, Roma". www.read-nz.org. January 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  7. "Roma Potiki". Poetry Foundation. 15 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  8. "Kōmako A bibliography of writing by Māori in English". www.komako.org.nz. 15 November 2019. Archived from the original on 9 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  9. Taonga, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. "2. – Māori theatre - te whare tapere hōu – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand". teara.govt.nz. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  10. Locke, Cybèle (2012). Workers in the Margins: Union Radicals in Post-war New Zealand. Bridget Williams Books. ISBN 978-1-927131-39-8.
  11. O'Donnell, David (2007). "Calming the Oceans: Interview with Briar Grace-Smith". In Maufort, Marc; O'Donnell, David (eds.). Performing Aotearoa : New Zealand theatre and drama in an age of transition. Bruxelles: P.I.E. Peter Lang. p. 271. ISBN 978-90-5201-359-6. OCLC 165412282.
  12. "John Anderson". NZ On Screen. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  13. Warrington, Lisa (2017). Floating Islanders : Pasifika theatre in Aotearoa. O'Donnell, David, 1956-. Dunedin, New Zealand. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-988531-07-6. OCLC 994638351.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  14. Edmond, Murray (2007). ""Autonomous Theatre" in New Zealand". In Maufort, Marc; O'Donnell, David (eds.). Performing Aotearoa : New Zealand theatre and drama in an age of transition. Bruxelles: P.I.E. Peter Lang. p. 65. ISBN 978-90-5201-359-6. OCLC 165412282.
  15. Kouka, Hone (2007). "The State of Contemporary Theatre". In Maufort, Marc; O'Donnell, David (eds.). Performing Aotearoa : New Zealand theatre and drama in an age of transition. Bruxelles: P.I.E. Peter Lang. p. 240. ISBN 978-90-5201-359-6. OCLC 165412282.
  16. "The University of Auckland Library".
  17. "Read NZ". www.read-nz.org. Archived from the original on 9 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
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