11/27/2023
What an incredible pleasure and privilege to have spent a week with the phenomenally talented & .andrews at Mere’s very special Tauanui Marae in Waimana, Aotearoa NZ (Ngāi Tūhoe mana whenua). The week was focused on the final bilingual libretto (english and te reo Māori courtesy of the great ) for the final chapter of Te Moana Meridian as a major live opera performance work slated to premiere in late 2024 at in partnership with . Work that was only made possible thanks to the generous support of ’s essential catalytic funding for the project in 2022❤️🙏. Im so thankful for it, and to finally be embarking and this opera ive been dreaming of since late 2019. I’d also like to extend a huge thanks and infinite aroha to te Whakātane hāpu, the Boyntons, Te Poho o Tamatea, and the extended Tauanui marae whānau for the abundantly warm@and generous manaaki (and the whenua dor the delicous p**i and cockles!🤤). Arohanui and tīhei mauriora to you all💚. Thank you also to for the killer new gold costumes! ⭐️, and, of course, to Holland and Mere for your creative brilliance, care and generosity, friendship, and the massive dept of inspiration this work owes you both. The opera is going to be fierce as f**k because of you two. —- finally, an important note on context for all those non-NZ folx: yes, this portion of the project took place on indigenous Māori land; yes I have several Māori collaborators, and yes these things are important and respected dimensions of the work. But no, i am not Māori, and nor do i or the project reflect or represent te ao Māori in any way. There are many reasons underscoring all this, but the projects primary focus is in considering how to build better multilateral relational modalities to shape and render political and geopolitical policies through. Work that starts, and ends, with constructive engagement and collaboration. As my own default political and cultural background, the relational dynamics between Māori and pākehā (whities of colonial settler decent) offers a rich - albeit sticky - framework for launching such an inquiries
