Alexander Bisley talks to Jim Moriarty - artistic director of Te Rakau Hua O Te Wao Tapu Trust - about saying no to Jake Heke, why Section 59 has got to go, Battalion, whanaungatanga versus The Lifestyle, and how theatre and the Treaty can empower all New Zealanders.

Courtesy of The Lumiere ReaderAlexander Bisley talks to Jim Moriarty - artistic director of Te Rakau Hua O Te Wao Tapu Trust - about saying no to Jake Heke, why Section 59 has got to go, Battalion, whanaungatanga versus The Lifestyle, and how theatre and the Treaty can empower all New Zealanders.

Courtesy of The Lumiere Reader"I WANT the audience to leave the theatre totally uplifted and overwhelmed," Jim Moriarty tells me about his Once Were Warriors musical (in 2004).

"Beth standing up and saying to Jake 'No more. We've had enough.' Ending domestic violence. Beth herself is taking her family out of that darkness and into the light, that's a metaphor for all of us. It's right up the pathway of the restoration that needs to take place in this country for us to move as a nation towards the repealing of Section 59 of the Criminal Justice Act."

Sweden has seen the rate of violence against children drop to about one quarter of what it was since similar legislation was overturned.

"I believe we need a huge paradigm shift, something like you cannot smack your kids, it's illegal. If I laid a hand on you could have me for assault, but if I smacked my child it's called reasonable force. It's absolute nonsense. The most vulnerable sub-culture in society, the most marginalised, the most dependent on love and care, is the one we're legally allowed to abuse the most."

Moriarty is artistic director of Te Rakau Hua O Te Wao Tapu Trust - a charitable trust that works with at-risk communities, creating and performing theatre in schools, marae and prisons, as well as professional theatres. On Thursday night, he talks to me after Te Rakau's latest powerful performance of Battalion at the company's Newtown HQ. He's confident about Section 59. "It's gonna be repealed."

Memo to politicians: children being hit is bad for their upbringing. "Shocking eh. It's bloody shocking. A lot of the work I do is with at risk rangitahi teenagers and that, kids from ten onwards. And I've worked in the male and female prison systems. Most of the people I've worked who are presenting with problems in terms of society today, are people who have come from violent family backgrounds, and that's a correlation that stacks. If you're taught violence as a norm, that's how you behave. When that fine line's been crossed where your personal space has been invaded by those you love in such a way, then as your life goes on it isn't so hard for you to cross the boundary either. When you cross that line with a child you're creating a problem, not only for that child, but for society and anyone else who encounters that child along there life's journey... you grow something with violence, it will grow up violent."

Moriarty is thoughtful and articulate, passionate and inspiring. He enthuses about the magic of the theatre: "We're all going to be in the same space together each night creating this thing and recreating it live each night for the audience." He diagnoses The Lifestyle's problem: "I think one of the things about the world we live in is that it's going at a hell of a fast pace, we are constantly being pressured to consume. Consume this, consume that, consume the other thing. If you get caught up into too much of that consumption stuff your life becomes about paying for the toys that you purchased as a consumer and less about spending time with your family and the people you love. We all get in that trap to some degree or other."

To read the full story, visit The Lumiere Reader.

Battalion is at Te Rakau, 129 Adelaide Rd, Newtown, Wellington every weeknight from now till the 15th December 2006. Starts 7pm sharp. (27-28 November 2006 booked out).
Ph: (04) 389 2066.
E-mail: booking.terakau@xtra.co.nz.

Image: Jim Moriarty