He mihi mahana o te tau hou kia koe.

Stars of a different sort will be shining during the Matariki celebrations at Te Papa this year, when Aotearoa’s leading Maori contemporary dance artists come together in Wellington to participate in Kowhiti - a four day festival which forms part of the festivities for the Maori New Year in the Capital.

Festival curators, Merenia and Tanemahuta Gray are creating a programme to showcase the achievements of a host of Maori dancers, choreographers, dance film makers, teachers and scholars who are drawn from the upper echelons of New Zealand’s dance community.

The Grays are siblings, who are leading lights in the contemporary dance world but also have expertise in the more traditional Maori arts. They last collaborated as Director and Choreographer on the mega-production Maui: One Man Against the Gods, which has toured throughout New Zealand and is aiming to go off-shore in the near future.

The Grays see Kowhiti as a chance to draw attention to “te puawaitanga o rehia” - the blossoming of a new wave of Maori dance talent – a group who use the dance vocabulary, tools and technologies of the 21st Century to create their work but who remain firmly in touch with the traditions and wairua (spirit) of their people.

Although Maori contemporary dance has long figured as a major player in the mainstream development of the art form in Aotearoa, it is only recently that a definitive and burgeoning movement of indigenous artistic dance choreographers has emerged to create a uniquely New Zealand dance form – one that is quite distinct from its European and American roots.

It seems that contemporary dance in Aotearoa, New Zealand has at last developed a true voice - one that has grown organically, while remaining connected to the land and telling the stories of its people. In spite of this achievement, Maori contemporary dance still does not feature very often at the international festivals held in New Zealand - so Kowhiti will provide an opportunity to re-dress this anomaly.

The festival will afford a feast of dance that will be offered at a time of new beginnings – traditionally a time of plenty, when the harvest was in for the year. Entrepreneur, Te Rangi Huata, who has been organising Matariki celebrations in Hastings since 2000, describes Matariki as “New Zealand’s (version of America’s) Thanksgiving”.