Forgiveness, redemption, and the writer listening in

I have this image in my head. It’s a busted old cabin, rotting timber with the paint peeling off it. The corrugated iron roof is all rusted through. If you look closely there’s some well worn boots sitting outside the front door. The cabin’s deep in the bush, way out King Country. Te whenua o Ngāti Maniapoto.

There’s two Māori fullas in the cabin. They’re sitting around an ancient table, drinking a few beers, toasting the ancestors. Oh yeah, it’s worth mentioning, the boots out front don’t belong to either of them. Nah, they’re the old boots of their best mate who died. 

Haere rā e hoa. 

They have a lot to catch up on. There’s songs to sing. A feed to cook up. I wanna listen in on their conversation, see if they figure things out by the end of the night. I hope they do. Otherwise they’ll never lift the weight off of those heavy hearts. Whole damn weight of Te Maunga on them hearts. Poor bastards. I need to write them through it. Maybe I’ll figure some things out through the writing. 

Maybe forgiveness will look a bit like redemption under theatre lights.  

Joel Te Teira

LA MAMA PRESENTS Antipodes Theatre Company's Back to Te Maunga
From 4 March 2026

FIND OUT MORE AND BOOK BACK TO TE MAUNGA

Joel Te Teira is a playwright, musician and producer of Māori (Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Hikairo) and Pākeha descent. He has a background in Indigenous Arts and Education, working with communities across the Pacific and North America. Joel was lead producer for the arts platform We Are Warriors; through which their work won an Award for Music at the Cannes Lions. Joel currently works as a producer with Ilbijerri Theatre Company.

As a writer Joel participated in the La Mama Pathways Writing Intensive Program and Melbourne Theatre Company’s CYBEC Electric development series for his play Ngātai, which was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award. Back to Te Maunga was previously developed as part of Antipodes Theatre Company's 2025 Winter Lab.

Show images by Darren Gill.