PO BOX 11223
Manners St, Wellington, New Zealand 6142
office@kiamaufestival.org
DARK!DARK!DARK!
By CONJAH in Community
DARK!DARK!DARK! is a Tagata Moana performance – a living bestiary within a subterranean epoch in-between the collapse of one world and the birthing of another. From the creative force of CONJAH (Jahra Wasasala and ooshcon), recipients of Kia Mau Festival’s inaugural innovative new initiative, He Toi Puaki, we present the world premiere of DARK!DARK!DARK!
DARK!DARK!DARK! is a living bestiary entangled within an epoch; a bodied ‘va’ or ‘vata’ between the collapse of one world and the birth of another. DARK!DARK!DARK! serves as a gathering point of the subterranean ancestral ecologies that thrive in the descent, mirroring our own interior depths. Honouring the mutations of living forms that have named themselves in the epoch, DARK!DARK!DARK! looks at how we can remake and remember ourselves amidst ecological terror.
Sharing multiple worlds within a work, DARK!DARK!DARK! dreams and remembers into known and speculative Tagata Moana lineages of darkness, story-telling and the pantheon of forms that inhabit them. Pushing the boundaries of their physicality, two performers shed their skin and become the unbecoming; using genre-bending dance, character performance, harsh vocalisation, sound distortion and larger than life design elements as catalysts.
The first full-length directorial and performance debut of CONJAH and collaborators, DARK!DARK!DARK! invites you to submerge and turn your sight towards some of our oldest Oceanic subterranean ancestors; the unnameable, the mutated, the beyond-body, the weird, the hybrid, the reborn, the buried, the unmade, the decaying, the endless – the DARK.
CONTENT WARNINGS: HAZE, STROBE, LOUD MUSIC, PROMENADE
He Toi Puaki – Seed Commissions, is a significant evolution in Kia Mau’s commitment to nurturing indigenous voices and fostering homegrown talent amongst our arts whānau here in Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui. He Toi Puaki embodies the essence of its name by serving as a platform for emerging artists to blossom from seeds of creativity into fully realised productions. This commissioning opportunity is set to redefine the landscape of indigenous performance art in Aotearoa.
Among the inaugural recipients of the He Toi Puaki commission are Emma Katene, Īhaka Martyn, and the dynamic partnership known as CONJAH, forged between Jahra Wasasala and ooshcon.
Dates
05-07 June 2025
8.30pm
Venue
The Great Hall
Massey University Wellington
Buckle Street
Mt Cook
Wellington
masseyvenues.com/dominion-museum-building/
Tickets
Early Bird Adult Ticket: $25 (Available until 24 April 2025)
Adult Ticket: $35
Concession Ticket (Kaumātua, Senior Citizens, Community Services Cardholders and Unwaged): $30
Group 6+: $25
Student (including tertiary, te whare wānanga, polytech, kura kaupapa and secondary school students): $20
Student Standby: $15
Creative Credits
Directors & Performers Jahra Wasasala & ooshcon
Lighting Design Elekis Poblete Teirney
Sound Design Oliva ‘Spewer’ Luki
Sound Design No Pity
Producer Kasi Valu
Opening Act Shaquille Wasasala
Mentor Grace Iwashita-Taylor
Guest Performer Josaia Wasasala
Featured Poems Noukahauoli Revilla, Grace Iwashita-Taylor
Opening Act Shaquille HALF QUEEN Wasasala
Font Design Timothy Russell
Image Frances Carter
Dance Coach Byrin XIII Mita
Physical Conditioning Trainer Alisa Thia
Funding / Residency / Support Credits Kia Mau Festival, Creative New Zealand, The Banff Centre D.A.I.R, Dancenorth A.R.T Residency, LGI Residency, Ūkaipō, The Sauna, The Pool Haus
Learn More About Jahra Wasasala
Jahra (Arieta) Wasasala is an award-winning Fijian / Pākehā world-builder, dancer, facilitator and writer, raised on and informed by the whenua of Tamaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. Within Viti (Fiji), Jahra hails from the provinces of Macuata and Ba. Jahra’s practice centres embodied and disembodied phenomena, bridging the phenomena’s breadth of physicality into shared performances. Jahra’s growing body of work builds into visions of liberation and calls in memories of creature-led language located in-between one world ending and another world beginning. Drawing from multiple dance teachings and cultures, Jahra embraces these forms with emotional rigour and innovative theatrical practices that contribute to the canon of Tagata Moana future-mythos.
An internationally touring performer, facilitator, and published writer, Jahra’s solo and company performance work has toured across Aotearoa (NZ), so-called Australia, Hawai’i, New York, Germany, Fiji, Guahån and Canada. Highly collaborative, Jahra’s practice expands into sound, adornment, poetry, sculpture, costume and digital realms through their collaborations, offering a studied and immersive world-building experience that continues through different works and periods of time.
Jahra’s work becomes a consistent partnership with their partner Ooshcon through ‘CONJAH’. CONJAH is a performance and facilitation focused entity, creating solo and ensemble works, facilitating workshops for a wide spectrum of communities and producing dance festivals.
Learn More About ooshcon
ooshcon is an award-winning Sāmoan / Pākehā dancer, facilitator, theatre-maker and ‘decipherer of circles’, who specialises in ‘free-body’ dance methodologies. ooshcon hails from the villages of Lalomanu and Veilele in Samoa and was raised in and is informed by the whenua of Te Awa Kairangi ki Uta, Aotearoa (NZ).
The core belief ‘ina ia sosolo le alofa / so love may flow’ is imbued into ooshcon’s evolving practice and way of being, creating works, collaborations and spaces that are alofa-informed. A recognised Street Dance Battler, Street Dance Theatre maker and performer, ooshcon has toured in dance works across Aotearoa (NZ), so-called Australia, Tahiti, Fiji, Mexico, Las Vegas, San Diego, China and Taiwan. Drawing from multiple dance teachings and cultures, ooshcon embraces these forms with emotional rigour and innovative theatrical practices that contribute to the canon of Tagata Moana future-mythos.
ooshcon’s work becomes a consistent partnership with their partner Jahra Wasasala through ‘CONJAH’. CONJAH is a performance and facilitation focused entity, creating solo and ensemble works, facilitating workshops for a wide spectrum of communities and producing dance festivals.
Learn More About CONJAH
CONJAH is a creative force of ‘feeling’; bleeding beyond the traditional boundaries of physical performance and creating immersive worlds inhabited by compelling beings.
Artists, world-builders, dance-theatre makers, poets, visual artists, film-makers, vocalists, writers and entity-benders, CONJAH are known for their formidable presence on stage that is balanced by their deep care for others. If a creative practice is a map, then CONJAH are geographically based at the collision of multiple visions. Through performance and practice, CONJAH pushes into the potential of our collective dreams and nightmares, and explores what happens when we face them.
CONJAH (Jahra Wasasala and ooshcon) embody an intersection of Fijian / Pākehā and Samoan / Pākehā heritage, hailing from the villages of Sorokoba and Naduri in Fiji, and Lalomanu and Vailele in Sāmoa. Jahra is born and raised on the unceded Ngāti Whatua whenua of Tāmaki Makaurau, and ooshcon is born and raised on the unceded whenua of the Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o te ika of the Te Awa Kairangi region.
Jahra and ooshcon intertwine their solo bodies of work based within non-human phenomena, cultural mapping, political resistance, and emotional rigor to coalesce into a shared practice. Deeply informed in an ever-learning relationship with their cultures and social-mapping, CONJAH’s performance works are theatrical experiences rooted in ecologies of transformation and kin-ship (human and non-human). CONJAH’s approach, affectionately dubbed ‘Oceanic Terror-fi, draws from and contributes to an everlasting lineage of Indigenous Future-Mythos and a collective movement towards liberation and resistance. With a commitment to collaborative partnership, CONJAH fosters an environment where each collaborative artist retains creative agency and where relationship is the gathering point for developing performance work.
Learn More About Kia Mau Festival
Tihei mauri ora!
Ka mihi ki ngā uri o te whenua o Te Upoko o te ika a Māui.
E ngā haukāinga o te rohe nei, Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Taranaki Whānui,
Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa!
Kia Mau Festival is at the forefront of contemporary Tāngata Whenua, Tāngata Moana, and Indigenous theatre and dance in Aotearoa and beyond. We are innovators—pushing boundaries, redefining forms, and forging new paths with creative risk-taking at every step. Right here, right now, we bring together local, national, and international artists in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. We find the intersection where our stories intertwine, creating an experience that is uniquely ‘local’ yet unparalleled in Pōneke throughout the year.
Kia Mau offers a truly unique experience, led by Tāngata Whenua, Tāngata Moana, and Indigenous voices at every level—from our leadership to our artists and audiences. Unlike any other festival, we are not just a platform for presentations; we are a hub for kōrero and whanaungatanga.
Our festival serves as a whare where Tāngata Whenua, Tāngata Moana, and Indigenous artists and their communities are supported throughout the creation, development, and staging of their works. By providing a nurturing environment, we empower individual artists, strengthen their capabilities, and enrich the arts sector, celebrating the diversity and talent of Tāngata Whenua, Tāngata Moana, and Indigenous artists.
With our deep understanding of the arts sector and strong relationships with artists from emerging talents to established figures, we identify those at pivotal moments in their careers or with significant projects. By including them in the Kia Mau Festival programme, we support them in taking strategic steps forward. This approach has allowed Kia Mau Festival to make a substantial impact on numerous artists and, consequently, shape the contemporary arts landscape.
Returning to Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui, Aotearoa New Zealand from 30 May – 14 June 2025. Nau mai, haramai! Nau mai, hoki mai ki te hui ahurei o Kia Mau!
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