Maori Drama Group

Mana (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 12, 25 December 1977, Page 8

Maori Drama Group

Maori actors have recently formed their own drama group, called Te Ika a Maui Players, in Wellington. Distinguished Maori poet, Rowley Habib, is the driving force behin'd the group which will reflect the ideas of its Maori actors.

Rowley Habib says the group got together after years of fruitless lobbying for Maori content.on television.

He sees the Players as a medium through which young Maori writers are given a break and actors get a chance to evolve a distinc-

tive Maori style in drama. Pakeha involvement in the Players does not worry Habib as long as the driving force behind the drama group is Maori. He hopes that the group can establish a permanent theatre in time but it will be from their own money. ‘‘We don’t want to bludge off the Government,” he says. The Players have already presented their first performance in Wellington with a play called ‘‘Death of the Land” which depicts the f ight for possession of some land through the Maori Land Court. With one exception all the pakeha roles in the play are filled by ‘‘whitened up” Maoris. Habib wants to keep the group’s productions as simple as possible — with a minimum of props — so that the plays are easy to take outside the city. He already has plans to take “Death of the Land” to Petone. Porirua and Wainuiomata,