The Cultch and Urban Ink announce the world premiere of Te Tangi a te Tūī, a collaboration between Aotearoa’s (New Zealand) Te Rēhia Theatre and The Dust Palace.

The Tūī (Indigenous songbird) soaks up the world around it and responds in song. Though beautiful, his tune now is a faint echo from when Aotearoa was blanketed in the ngāhere (forest), flutes of patupaiarehe (fairy folk) filled the trees and Māori alone walked gently upon their mother. The loss of the original voice of the Tūī parallels the forces of loss and regeneration of te reo Māori (Māori language). Telling a tale that spans generations, this show weaves together ancient stories from the land with urban experiences like assimilation and the breakneck “urban drift” of Māori that led to detachment from land, language and mātauranga (knowledge).

This powerful story told entirely in te reo Māori is a collaboration between Te Rēhia Theatre Company—an acclaimed Auckland Māori theatre company—and The Dust Palace—the renowned cirque theatre company Vancouverites know from The Goblin Market and WonderWombs. The two companies, well known in Aotearoa (New Zealand) in their respective disciplines, were offered a commission from The Cultch and Urban Ink to create a piece, and Te Tangi a te Tūī was created—first offered as a documentary about the making of the show, which was a part of Urban Ink and the Cultch’s digital TRANSFORM Cabaret Festival in spring 2023, and now as an extraordinary live experience that fuses Māori culture with the artistry of the circus.

“For me the coming together of the circus and the theatre, what we are able to offer people,” says co-writer Amber Curreen, “is that they can be engaged in story and be really in their body at the same time. They are seeing these bodies doing these amazing things that make your heart rate rise, pull you forward in your seat, then push you back, and it positions you really in your body, not just your mind.”