Before anything begins, a carpet of stars stretches upwards towards a door like portal. It is otherworldly, timeless, a reminder perhaps that we are all made of stardust. A dark presence slowly appears in the doorway and begins to walk down the star-strewn slope. It is an old woman called Tiri. She is 185 years old and she tells the story of her long life and the history of her people of Aotearoa.
This is the genesis of a remarkable piece of theatre: Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking written by Witi Ihimaera.
Tiri (Miriama McDowell) was born the day the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed and her name is an abbreviated form of the Māori word Tiriti. Almost two centuries later, she comes to educate and challenge. Bent double and using two walking sticks she is fearsome, funny, and eloquent. She weaves her stories with passion and at times anger but apparently not always with total accuracy. Her companion Tilly (Ni Dekkers-Reihana) corrects and challenges her, yet also helps tell the incredibly potent history since the beginning of colonisation.
Those stories include the first sightings of Pakeha whom Tiri calls the goblins who leave toeless footprints in the soil and bring with them disease, lies, and deception.
“We welcomed the goblin,” she says “And he killed us with his muskets.”
She laments the loss of land, the deaths of her husband, children, and grandchildren, all gone because of the Pakeha Wars, the stealing of land, the ravages of illness. The stories she tells cover the initial Pakeha arrivals, the Treaty signing, and then the remorseless and rapacious spread of pakeha settlements. After the Pakeha Wars of the 1860s came two world wars and the dreaded Spanish Flu – all of which took a huge toll on Māori communities. Despite initially welcoming pakeha, and then fighting in their huge global conflicts, Tangata Whenua were not feted as the returning white soldiers were, or given medicines they needed. It is not surprising this play is full of anger.
McDowell is perfect as the multi-faceted Tiri as she effortlessly swaps between reo and English. She is extremely funny in moments but also conjures up fearsome tirades or powerful haka when recounting the devastating history of invasion and death. This is a devastatingly good performance.
Dekkers-Reihana is equally strong as she needles and also supports Tiri. Her stunning signing voice is utilised beautifully in two deeply emotional waiata and her range of personalities is delivered flawlessly.
Visually stunning, well crafted, and epic in dimension and voice, this play is a clarion call for our nation to wake up to a history that is all too often ignored or suppressed. In a year where government ministers are removing the language of the native people of Aotearoa from school books and trying to remove long fought for recognition of the Tiriti in our laws, this play is perhaps more relevant and important than when it was first performed some twenty years ago.
TIRI: TE ARAROA WOMAN FAR WALKING
4 – 23 November 2025
ASB Waterfront Theatre – Auckland
