Pacific performers are showcasing the richness of Māori and Pacific poetry during this year's Auckland Arts Festival.
Grace Taylor, curator of Upu Photo: RNZ Pacific / Sela Jane Hopgood
Curator Grace Taylor is helping bring to light a variety of older works by Pacific poets, and theatre director Fasitua Amosa has formed these into the show Upu, which means 'words' in Samoan.
The poems are from different perspectives and are the work of writers scattered across the Pacific - from the Marshall Islands, Guam, Hawai'i and Tonga.
Pacific performing artists mix poetry with theatre
Taylor said it was an emotional start to the process of creating the show.
"When we had the read through at the first rehearsal, it was emotional for me because I am just so glad that people from different walks of life coming to this show will get to hear the works of Pacific poets."
"We reached out to every single poet featured in this show and they all give their blessing and are humbled to have their work on stage. None of them said no."
Taylor, who is a poet and performer herself, said the themes of the poems were still relevant to this day despite some being written 20 years ago.
"The poems discuss climate change, the impact of colonisation on the islands, the revitalisation of language, family issues, identity politics, what does it mean to be a woman? What does it mean to have your language taken away from you?"
"The heart of Upu is elevating our stories by us for us, but my dream is that people coming to see this show are people who have never touched a book that has writing from a Pacific or Māori writer and then are amazed at the work and suddenly looking up these writers on Google or in the library."
"Upu exists to serve our Pacific writers."
This is the third season of Upu, and actress Gaby Solomona said each season had given her a new sense of appreciation for the poets and their work.
Gaby Solomona, actress from Upu Photo: RNZ Pacific / Sela Jane Hopgood
"When we got given the scripts in the first season, I was shocked because I haven't heard of these Pacific poets and yet their work just made me feel so proud."
"The poems were very confronting and overwhelming."
"The poems talk about each of their experiences and sometimes they are not good. There is a lot of Pacific history mentioned, colonisations of the islands, a lot of things that I personally haven't heard about, but learning through the poems and I am just amazed."
"These are experiences that my people have been through and it made me wonder how many young Pacific islanders are aware of this history shared through the poems?"
Theatre director Fasitua Amosa wants the public to be aware of the Pacific poetry, which have been around for over 20 years.
"We have gone all over Oceania with the poem selection for this show."
Fasitua Amosa, theatre director of Upu Photo: RNZ Pacific / Sela Jane Hopgood
"These Pacific writers are all academics and are in that space, so if you have never been to university, you may have never come across these works."
"I know that there are people like me who don't read poetry if it's in a book and a lot of these writers are published writers, but I know there are people like me who go to the theatre and will sit there for an hour, so I thought why don't we join the dots.
"Let's bring those poems off the shelf and perform them on stage."
Opening night for Upu is on the 5 to 15 March at Q Theatre in Auckland.