Te Kāhui Tau School of Performing Arts Senior Lecturer Tessa Petersen is helping to bring the story of Mataatua Whare to life for audiences, in what will be a vivid performance of a new composition by renowned composer Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead.
The public première will be staged by The Dunedin Symphony Orchestra on Saturday 28 June, in the Dunedin Town Hall.
The work tells the story of Mataatua Whare: from the carved meeting house’s creation in Whakatāne in 1875, the loss of Ngāti Awa control of it, and its travels overseas as part of various exhibitions.
Mataatua returned to Aotearoa when it was part of the 1925 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin. From there it went to Tūhura Otago Museum for 70 years and, following a Waitangi Tribunal deed of settlement signing in 1996, it finally returned home to Whakatāne.
The carved meeting house, Mataatua, at the New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition, 1925-1926. Robert Johnstone photograph, P2008-023-018d, Hocken Collections Uare Taoka o Hākena, University of Otago Otakou Whakaihu Waka.
The idea to produce the work began in 2023 when Tessa was researching a project around the centenary of Dunedin’s 1925-1926 Exhibition, which attracted over three million visitors.
On seeing that Mataatua Wharenui had been a part of the vast exhibition, she started to explore its story and found it most compelling.
A report she found in the Robertson Library on Mataatua prepared for a court case in the 1990s by Sir Hirini Moko Mead, was pivotal to her research. This also brought a personal connection for Tessa, as she learned that her grandfather had collaborated with Sir Hirini in 1979 on the book Portraits Of The New Zealand Māori, a republication of early paintings.
“I had a strong vision of its remarkable journey being told through music. There is a lot of inherent contrast, and I could imagine the voices of the characters, including one for Mataatua Whare itself, plus a visual element to enhance the musical composition,” Tessa says.
Tessa approached Gillian to compose the work. “I decided it couldn’t be anyone else but her.” Gillian is of Ngāi Te Rangi descent, whose tīpuna also travelled on the Mataatua Waka. On reading the report of the story, she was up for the challenge.
The pair approached Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa, who became a close collaborator over the past year, as have Kāi Tahu, who also have a part in the story.
Tessa Petersen
Sir Hirini has generously provided input into this musical work.
“He said this work ‘would give the house a chance to speak again’, which is the highest praise I could imagine for this work,” Tessa says.
The visual component has been produced by Graham McArthur of Video Factory in collaboration with Tessa and Gillian. It features Gillian’s text in te reo Māori and English along with historic photographs from various sources, including many from the Hocken Collection, sourced with the help of Curator Photographs (and Tessa’s sister), Dr Anna Petersen.
The performance features three soloists,a choir and the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, of which Tessa is the Concertmaster. It holds many special elements, enriched by research and collaboration, such as the march music composed for the cities that hosted the exhibitions. A video of Ngāti Awa singing their special waiata about Mataatua will close the piece.
There will be a special performance for Ngāti Awa in front of Mataatua Wharenui in Whakatāne before the public première in Dunedin.
Support for the première includes a University of Otago Research Grant.
The journey of Mataatua Whare: the house that came home (première), Saturday 28 June, Dunedin Town Hall.
There is a free pre-concert talk by Dr Andrew Perkins in conversation with composer Dame Gillian Whitehead and Tessa Petersen, 6:30-7pm. https://www.dso.org.nz/events/brahms-and-mataatua-a-journey-in-music