Theatre Royal, Hobart
DATE: FRIDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2025
TIME: 18:30
DURATION: 2HRS APPROX.
TICKETS: $35/$30 CONCESSION
RECOMMENDED AGE: 14+
Cross-cultural historian Dame Anne Salmond, visual artist Michel Tuffery and waka captain Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr recount and relive this incredible story in writing, artworks and waka voyaging. Their work celebrates the achievements of the original Pacific explorers, voyaging in wooden watercraft, guided only by the stars and their intimate knowledge of the sea. It also provides new insights into contact history, and the key role played by charismatic individuals, both Polynesian and European, in creating cross-cultural understanding.
This is a unique opportunity to hear these three revered interpreters of Pacific history and contemporary identity, in conversation with Kate Fullagar, with performances by Māori cultural troupe Ngā Mātai Pūrua.
A professor of History at Australian Catholic University, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and Vice President of the Australian Historical Association. She is the author of The Savage Visit: New World Peoples and Popular Imperial Culture (UCP, 2012) and The Warrior, the Voyager, and the Artist: Three Lives in an Age of Empire (YUP, 2020). Her most recent book is Bennelong & Phillip: A History Unravelled (Simon & Schuster, 2023).
A distinguished Professor in Māori Studies and Anthropology, and a
former Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Equal Opportunity) at the University of Auckland. She has written a series of prize winning books about Māori life, European and Pacific voyaging and cross-cultural encounters in the Pacific. In 2013, Dame Anne won the Rutherford Medal, New Zealand’s top scientific award, and became the New Zealander of the Year. She is a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in the US, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and a Foreign Member of the American Philosophical Society. In 2021, she was awarded the Order of New Zealand.
The captain of the oceangoing waka Haunui, Hinemoana and Aotearoa One. Hoturoa has been sailing around the Pacific for more than thirty five years. He paddles waka, sails waka, and teaches waka—Hoturoa lives waka. Diving deep into the art form of waka, he is one of the few holders of mātauranga whakatere waka (waka sailing knowledge) in
Aotearoa. Throughout the years, Hoturoa has used his specialised knowledge to encourage tauira (students) to look at mātauranga waka from all aspects, which include science, technology, astronomy, arts and more. These teachings have taken him to many different indigenous spaces, working with many different rōpū (groups). Hoturoa is an orator on his marae at Kāwhia, the home of his waka, and the ancient landing and settlement place of his ancestral waka, Tainui, captained by his tupuna (ancestor), Hoturoa.
An Aotearoa / New Zealand-based artist of Samoan, Rarotongan and Ma‘ohi Tahitian heritage. In his art practice, he plays the role of connector, working “in between” people and places and focusing a fresh lens on environmental, community, cultural and art historical divides. He exhibits worldwide and has undertaken research and community residencies throughout the USA, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Asia, India, Australia, Aotearoa, and the Pacific. In 2008, Michel was appointed as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to art, but his real reward comes from enriching communities through his art.
