1 Toi Whakaari is a Te Reo term translating as ‘performing arts’ in English. The school's full name is Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: New Zealand Drama School. For the sake of readability, I will generally refer to the institution as ‘Toi’ and on occasion use its longer name for effect.

2 Te Aka Online Māori Dictionary defines karanga as ‘to call out or summon’. Occurring as a repeated chant, the practice is integral to a pōwhiri. See https://maoridictionary.co.nz, accessed 1 June 2020.

3 Tawhi-Thomas’ Māori lineage – whakapapa – is the Ngāti Maniapoto iwi of the eastern part of New Zealand's North Island. In keeping with Tikanga Māori, I will recognize the iwi of all Māori individuals referenced or quoted in the article.

4 Tanea Heke's iwi is the Ngāpuhi, the largest indigenous tribe in New Zealand. Their land encompasses the North Island from Hokianga to Manuganui Bluff in the west and the Bay of Islands to Whāngārei in the east.

5 Tikanga signifies the customs, traditions, values and corresponding practices of the Māori. Consecrating a sacred belief system, these values are embedded in the history of the Māori and have a determinative and lasting influence on the social structure of Māori communities – iwi – throughout New Zealand. While there is a shared understanding of Tikanga Māori, each iwi is distinct in how it represents and practises its indigeneity. In addition to primary research consisting of personal interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, I consulted Mead's, Hirini Moko Tikanga Māori: Living by Māori Values (Wellington: Huia Publishers, 2013)Google Scholar to support my analysis of Toi Whakaari's use of indigenous paradigms.

6 The term noho marae signifies a group's overnight stay at a marae, during which time the principles and culture of indigenous Aotearoa are taught and learned.

7 Phillip Zarrilli and Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento underscore the need to address ‘what acting is and how acting is taught’ through a multinational and ‘polycultural’ lens. Their frameworks are different from Eugenio Barba's ‘universalist’ justification of the multiplicity of traditions comprising his methods. Taking the culture–training debate a step further, Chris Hay and Kristine Landon-Smith espouse an ‘intracultural’ ethos to ensure diversity and inclusion and therein build upon the seminal work of Rustom Bharucha. Hay and Landon-Smith's argument distinguishes inter- and intra-cultural paradigms by claiming that the former connotes an erasure of difference under the guise of ‘neutrality’. See Zarrilli, Phillip, ‘Reframing Intercultural Acting and Actor Training in the Twenty-First Century’, in Zarilli, Phillip, Sasitharan, T. and Kapur, Anuradha, eds., Intercultural Acting and Performer Training (London: Routledge, 2019), pp. 2–6Google Scholar; also Nascimento, Cláudia Tatinge, Crossing Cultural Borders through the Actor's Work: Foreign Bodies of Knowledge (London: Routledge, 2009)Google Scholar; Barba, Eugenio and Savarese, Nicola, A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology, 2nd edn (London: Routledge, 1991)Google Scholar; and Hay, Chris and Landon-Smith, Kristine, ‘The Intracultural Actor: Embracing Difference in Theatre Arts Teaching,’ in Fliotsos, Anne and Medford, Gail S., eds., New Directions in Teaching Theatre Arts (New York: Palgrave, 2018), pp. 157–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Christian Penny (director, Toi Whakaari), transcript, ‘Address to UNESCO ITI Chair Conference’, Seoul, South Korea, May 2010, p. 5.

9 Te Aka Online Māori Dictionary defines Pākehā as one who ‘is English, foreign, European or originating from another country’. See https://maoridictionary.co.nz, accessed 30 May 2020.

10 Edward W. Said, ‘Opponents, Audiences, Constituencies, and Community’, Critical Inquiry, 9, 1 (September 1982), pp. 1–26, here p. 1; and Said, ‘Overlapping Territories, Intertwined Histories’, in Said, Culture and Imperialism (New York: Vintage Books, 1993), pp. 3–61; for an excellent account of the dialectic of a Westerner researching an indigenous population see Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, 2nd edn (London: Zed Books, 2012), pp. 44–60.

11 Mead, Tikanga Māori, p. 111.

12 Stuart Hall, ‘The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power’, in Stuart Hall and Bram Gieben, eds., Formations of Modernity: Understanding Modern Societies, Book 1 (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992), pp. 185–225, here p. 225.

13 Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies, p. 29; also Diana Taylor, ‘Acts of Transfer’, in Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003), pp. 1–52; and Linda Martin Alcoff, ‘What Should White People Do?’, in Uma Narayan and Sandra Harding, eds., Decentering the Center: Philosophy for a Multicultural, Postcolonial, and Feminist World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), pp. 262–82.

14 Anna Clements, ‘Te Tiriti Waitangi: Living the Values’, SchoolNews New Zealand, 1 November 2016. Written in 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi was an agreement between a critical mass of Māori chiefs – and their respective iwi – and the British Crown designed to create a bicultural nation, within which Māori preserved their independence and ownership of land. Ultimately, the wording of the treaty was ‘misunderstood’ between the two sides and strife ensued for generations.

15 Dora Alves, The Māori and the Crown: An Indigenous People's Struggle for Self-Determination (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishing, 1999), p. 57.

16 The Crown established a central government under the New Zealand Constitution Act of 1852.

17 In response to civic pressure, the New Zealand government passed the Treaty of Waitangi Act, thereby forming a tribunal to address injustices suffered by Māori citizens and their iwi. The Act was intended to honour the wording and bicultural spirit of the 1840 agreement.

18 Iorns Magallanes, quoted from Federico Lenzerini, ed., Reparations for Indigenous Peoples: International and Comparative Perspectives (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 26.

19 Katherine Smits, ‘Multiculturalism, Biculturalism, and National Identity in Aotearoa/New Zealand’, in Richard T. Ashcroft and Mark Bevir, eds., Multiculturalism in the British Commonwealth: Comparative Perspectives on Theory and Practice (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2019), pp. 109–14.

20 Anne Salmond, ‘Ontological Quarrels: Indigeneity, Exclusion, and Citizenship in a Relational World’, Anthropology Theory, 12, 2 (2012), pp. 115–41, here p. 134; also see Salmond's Two Worlds: First Meetings between Māori and Europeans 1642–1815 (London: Penguin Books, 2018); also Alves, The Māori and the Crown, p. 100; and Smits, ‘Multiculturalism, Biculturalism, and National Identity’.

21 Teina Moetara, interview with Peter Zazzali, 13 November 2019. Moetara hails from the Rongowhakaata, who are located on the east coast of the North Island near Gisborne.

22 Miller and Richard Campion founded the New Zealand Players in 1952. Arguably the country's first professional theatre, it ceased operations in 1960. Thereafter, Wellington's Downstage Theatre and the Mercury Theatre in Auckland were formed in 1964 and 1968 and best represented the professional scene at the time of Toi's inception. See Guest, Bill, Transitions: Four Decades of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2010), pp. 4–8Google Scholar.

23 Millar visited sixteen countries during her 1967 tour of drama schools. She acknowledged LAMDA, the Bristol Old Vic, Paris's Jacques Lecoq School and Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghoff's HB Studio as exhibiting ‘the best work being done at professional theatre schools’. See Guest, Transitions, p. 17.

24 Quoted from Guest, Transitions, p. 5.

25 Christian Penny, ‘Address to UNESCO ITI Chair Conference,’ May 2010. Penny was Toi's first director of Māori descent. His iwi is the Tainui of the central North Island.

26 Ibid., p. 8.

27 Quoted from Toi Whakaari web site, http://toiwhakaari.ac.nz/about-us/history, accessed 17 November 2017.

28 Whetu Fala, interview with Peter Zazzali, 28 June 2019. Fala is from the Ngā Rauru Kii Tahi iwi located on the North Island along the Cook Strait.

29 See Guest, Transitions, pp. vi–vii.

30 Annie Ruth, interview with Peter Zazzali, 18 June 2019. Ruth was the first alumna of Toi Whakaari to become director, an honour later bestowed on Christian Penny (2012–18) and Tanea Heke (2019–present). For more on Toi's bicultural pedagogy see Ruth's dissertation, ‘Kanahoi Ki Te Kanohi: Face to Face’, PhD dissertation, Victoria University, 2013; and Maufort, Marc and O'Donnell, David, eds., Performing Aotearoa: New Zealand Theatre and Drama in an Age of Transition (Brussels: Peter Lang, 2007)Google Scholar.

31 Guest, Transitions, p. 141.

32 Payne began as director in 1991 to replace Sunny Amey, who had been serving as ‘interim director’. Amey replaced Andy Noble, whose directorship was mired in turmoil, prompting his untimely departure after one year in the post. Guest, Transitions, pp. 126, 133–47.

33 Annie Ruth, interview with Peter Zazzali, 18 June 2019.

34 Paratene was the first Māori alumnus of Toi Whakaari. Graduating in 1972, he is a renowned actor, director and playwright whose work is prolific throughout the industry. His iwi is the Ngāpuhi.

35 Taha Māori signifies ‘Māori identity, character, and/or heritage’. See https://maoridictionary.co.nz, accessed 31 May 2020.

36 ‘Tūranga: Acting Department Handbook for Year 1 (2019)’, unpublished, p. 6.

37 Heather Timms, interview with Peter Zazzali, 18 March 2019.

38 See the Acting Department's 2019 handbooks for Years 2 and 3, which are respectively titled ‘Rararanga’ and ‘Waewae’. Also see ‘The Responsive Actor – Tūrangawaewae’, unpublished guide to the Bachelor of Performing Arts (Acting 2013), p, 1.

39 Alice Canton, interview with Peter Zazzali, 23 May 2019.

40 Christian Penny, interview with Peter Zazzali, 13 June 2017.

41 Annie Ruth, interview with Peter Zazzali, 18 June 2019.

42 Heke and Hoet graduated during the late 1990s.

43 Grace Hoet, interview with Peter Zazzali, 20 June 2019. Her whakapapa includes multiple iwi: the Ngā Puhi, Te Arawa, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Tuwharetoa and the Ngāti Raukawa.

44 Tanea Heke, interview with Peter Zazzali, 24 June 2019.

45 Jade Eriksen, Teina Moetara and Heather Timms, ‘Tātou’, unpublished learning guide, p. 5.

46 Teina Moetara, interview with Peter Zazzali, 13 November 2019.

47 Richard Te Are, interview with Peter Zazzali, 26 June 2019. Te Are hails from the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, located along the eastern coast of the North Island.

48 Tim George, ‘Review: A Few Things I've Learned about Dating and Death (Basement Theatre), Theatre Scenes: The Auckland Theatre Blog’, 18 September 2018, at www.theatrescenes.co.nz/review-a-few-things-ive-learnt-about-dating-and-death-basement-theatre, accessed 30 November 2019.

49 Acacia O'Connor, interview with Peter Zazzali, 26 June 2019.

50 Chappell is a graduate of Toi's Master of Theatre Arts in Directing, a programme that has since been dissolved.

51 Quoted from Two Productions website at www.twoproductions.co.nz, accessed 30 November 2019.

52 Red Leap Theatre was founded in 2008 and specializes in ‘physical theatre, imagery, and storytelling’. It proved to be an excellent match for Chappell and Eason, given their interest in doing innovative and devised work. For more on Red Leap see their website at https://redleaptheatre.co.nz/about, accessed 2 December 2019.

53 Tom Eason and Holly Chappell, interview with Peter Zazzali, 4 May 2019.

54 Holly Chappell, interview with Peter Zazzali, 4 May 2019.

55 Tom Eason, interview with Peter Zazzali, 4 May 2019.

56 Teina Moetara, interview with Peter Zazzali, 13 November 2019.

57 Ibid.

58 Tanea Heke, interview with Peter Zazzali, 24 June 2019.

59 Ibid.

60 Grace Hoet, interview with Peter Zazzali, 20 June 2019.

61 Tanea Heke, interview with Peter Zazzali, 24 June 2019.

62 Teina Moetara, interview with Peter Zazzali, 13 November 2019.

63 Ibid.

64 Tanea Heke, interview with Peter Zazzali, 24 June 2019.

65 Teina Moetara, ‘Welcoming Address to Toi Whakaari Students and Staff’, lecture, Noho Marae, Manutuke, New Zealand, 8 April 2019.

66 Jack Barry, interview with Peter Zazzali, 10 April 2019.

67 Ngapaki Moetara, ‘Farewell Address (whaikōreo) to Toi Whakaari Students and Staff’, lecture, Noho Marae, Manutuke, New Zealand, 11 April 2019. Ngapaki Moetara is an active member of the Rongowhakaata hapū.

68 Ibid.

69 Vaughan Slinn, interview with Peter Zazzali, 17 June 2019.

70 Jade Eriksen, Teina Moetara and Heather Timms, ‘Tātou’, p. 6.

71 Heather Timms, email exchange with Peter Zazzali, 6 August 2019.

72 Ibid.