Confluence: WORD Christchurch Festival 2025

Saturday night saw many punters heading to The Piano to watch the array of indigenous writers and performers exploring their connections across the Pacific. Confluence was brought to us by WORD Christchurch and Cross-Polynate, a social change agency run by indigenous consultants and creatives.

The night kicked off with the band Judah providing a very groovy tune with talented guest vocalists, then welcoming our MC, Dietrich Soakia, onto the stage. As spoken word was on the lineup, Soakia gave a crash course for any spoken word newcomers (clicking and mmm-ing when something resonates with you), although there were only a few newbies among this audience. Then it was time to get the audience warmed up with Mili Mili Patia, a Sāsā I love that was used frequently at school. Mili mili patia and Soakia’s use of ‘Uso’ and ‘Toko’, sent a wave of homesickness over me for my stomping ground of Onehunga in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Now that we had all been energised, Cooper Gibb-Faumuinā was welcomed onto the stage to join Judah. An Ōtautahi based singer-songwriter of Samoan descent, Cooper had just graduated UC with a Bachelors in Criminal Justice. His impressive vocal mastery layered over complex guitar chords leaves us all in no doubt that Gibb-Faumuinā is one to watch.

Up next was none other than Becky Manawatu, author of the best-selling (and rightly so) Auē and Kataraina. She read us some passages from Kataraina, as well as some prose she derived from it. The first passage evoked the fierce protectiveness of motherhood; whilst the second passage illustrated Kataraina’s moving experience with a Taniwha, who oversaw her spiritual journey during her coma. Following this was a poem Manawatu wrote about an Oranga Tamariki caregiving course. The beautiful and moving lines spoke of brain scans exposed to stress, like ‘looking at a diagram of starvations... looking at the theft and what’s left of Māori land’, and neural connections being recognised as taonga.

Then Judah returned to give us an upbeat instrumental of Rock With You, before Munashe Webeck of Christchurch Girls High School was introduced. Munashe delivered a poignant and soul-stirring spoken word piece about grief, written after losing her mother. It was heartwarming to see many of her friends in attendance – they could be spotted by their cheering which went above and beyond.

Soakia gave space to this confronting subject matter through a shared inhale and exhale, which I felt was a respectful way to acknowledge Munashe’s poem before viewing the next performance, a singer-songwriter-activist from Hāna, Maui. When this wahine started singing, I just about fell off my chair, her vocals were jaw-droppingly impressive, not to mention her ukulele skills.

The final performer was Dominic Guerrera, a Ngarrindjeri, Kaurna and Italian artist and poet who focusses on the lived experiences of First Nations people. Guerrera has many strings to his bow, a ceramicist, photographer, printmaker poet, producer and the winner of the 2021 Indigenous Poetry Prize. He performed two rousing poems, the first ‘Unwelcome Country’, and another from his latest publication, ‘Native Rage’. He expressed his surprise that no one had walked out, as he had learned to expect one or two people leaving during his shows in Australia.

To close off, Tusi led a beautiful waiata, backed by Judah, rounding off a truly spirited night.

Catherine
He Hononga | Connection, Ground floor, Tūranga

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