Sydney’s Carriageworks is welcoming back Lemi Ponifasio and his New Zealand-based dance company MAU this month. The ten-member ensemble of Maori women will present Stones In Her Mouth, a production which is voiced through Maori language, genealogy, spirituality and ceremony.
Blending dance theatre and music, Stones In Her Mouth draws on the Maori tradition of poetry and chant. The title comes from the work of poet Roma Potiki. Like the poet, this dramatic production turns a mirror to the massive social, economic, religious, cultural and political turmoil throughout the world. The ensemble of performers of Stones In Her Mouth, explore these themes as well as addressing wider issues of what it means to be a Maori woman in the world.
In Maori culture, women are the house of humanity, 'te whare tangata', and they are respected for their ability to create life. “A woman‘s mouth is the seat of the unravelling or the lifting of tapu, the forbidden. A woman sings a waiata, the enfolding and capturing of the essence of words and ‘wrapping them up‘ so that they do not lodge in the space of the world and become dangerous power,” says Ponifasio. He explains that a women's challenge is powerful and undisguised, voiced through the Maori language, genealogy, spirituality, ceremony, family and nature. Through this powerful production, the strong ensemble of women are able to express their adaptibility, resilience and rage against power structures and definitions, oppression, racism, patriarchy, and even European-style feminism.
Stones In Her Mouth
MAU
28-31 May
Carriageworks
245 Wilson Street, Redfern, NSW
www.carriageworks.com.au
Above: MAU performs Stones In Her Mouth