Supporting Ancestral and Creative Wellbeing in Dawn Raids

As actors in Dawn Raids move between the wings, they draw lines of ancestral connections and impose stories told by their grandparents, taking audiences back to the 1970s when the government and police targeted Pasifika overstayersRobbing houses at night, snatching families out of their beds and stopping them on the street.

Dawn Raids, written by Oscar Kightley and first performed in 1997, was the fifth play by Pacific Underground, the longest-running performing arts organization in the Pacific.

With last year’s government apology for the Dawn Raids, the stage was set for the play to resurface.

This time it’s in partnership with the Auckland Theater Company, a combination that formally recognizes the people behind the curtains, ensuring the sovereignty of the story and the well-being of the people in the production as the cast and crew of the Dawn Raids combine ancestral knowledge and creative knowledge to tell their story authentically.

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Lafaiali’i Flo Lafai and Mishelle Muagututi’a are named as creatives responsible for narrative sovereignty and pastoral care in this year’s showing of the play.

Lafai, a social worker, expected Dawn Raids to stir a lot of emotions, especially among those whose families were targeted in the 1970s.

Lafai’s primary concern was for the holistic well-being of those involved in the release of the piece.

She was also the head of welfare for Otago Polyfest and said she was thrilled that the kind of work she does was finally being recognized.

“I love how the support we get to give can be recognized as a real job,” said Lafai.

Muagututi’a interrupts: “I have to say, Flo and I have been doing this for a long time, but we just put a label on it.” Muagututi’a was part of the cast of Dawn Raids in 1997 and is the manager of the archive.

Muagututi’a said that if they came back on the show older and wiser, they could support the āiga on and off stage in a really meaningful way.

“We’re just making sure we support the author and make sure his story is clear and transparent to the cast and crew…,” she said.

“I really hope the story of the Dawn Raids is told in Aotearoa’s history curriculum as this is too expensive for us to put on shows to tell the story. It’s too expensive for people to go to a show to see the story.”

Also behind the scenes, Reverend Mua Strickson-Pua is a pou for the cast and crew as a spiritual support leader.

“But he is not here to bless us or pray,” Mugaututi’a said.

“He had to be part of the process from the beginning with the once a month meeting… checking with the crew members that they are okay, and [allowing them] to vent.”

Strickson-Pua’s father was the chairman of the Samoan advisory council that met with then Prime Minister Robert Muldoon about the Dawn Raids.

“For me, the story is very personal,” he said. “So when it came to the apology, we had four generations of our family to show that our people don’t forget.

“We protect the stories and the people so that the stories are not hijacked and not exploited without some transparency, accountability [or] love for the people.”

Strickson-Pua said that the core of the story is āiga.

“Families who have lived through these tragedies,” he said.

“It’s about nations and people having to find out that injustice had happened for a nation to start mending and healing.”

Strickson-Pua said there was a sense of evolution where the artists were recognized as professional practitioners who give back to their communities on so many levels, not just for their story but also for administration, management and wellbeing.

“When I look at what we’re doing in this current project, it’s a celebration of the markers in past history, but [it’s also] about the future,” he says.

“It’s about new practitioners, new opportunities, the development of people and nations… anyone who knows their stories, their presence will be recognized.

“Yes, they have been overthrown, Covid, all of this, but when we remember as grandparents, they come from our blood, our DNA, our past, connected to our future… these young performers become spoilsports again, just like Pacific Underground were spoilsports in the 90s, these are the spoilsports of our future.

“There are spiritual, cultural, political implications … through these processes as we try to tell these stories, you have to be responsible [and] be transparent.”

Dawn Raids is coming to the ASB Waterfront Theater from August 16 – September 3.