Tungia Baker Explained

Tungia Baker
Birth Date:8 October 1939
Birth Place:Ōtaki, New Zealand
Death Place:Ōtaki, New Zealand
Known For:Contribution to Māori theatre and arts as an actor, organiser and kaumātua

Tungia Dorothea Gloria Baker (8 October 1939 – 25 July 2005) was a New Zealand actor, weaver, and administrator. Her notable acting roles included Ngahuia in the 1980s television drama Open House and Hira in the 1993 film The Piano. Baker was influential in contemporary Māori theatre, Māori film making and Māori arts. She named the Taki Rua Theatre, and was a founding member of Māori artists' collectives Te Manu Aute and Haeata.

Early life and education

The daughter of noted Māori elder and Ngāti Raukawa paramount chief Matenga Baker of Ōtaki, Baker was born on 8 October 1939 in Ōtaki.[1] [2] [3] Her iwi affiliations were Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa, Te Āti Awa and Te Arawa. She went to the Queen Victoria School for Māori Girls in Auckland where she was head prefect from 1953 to 1957 and dux in 1957 and 1958. She did not learn to speak Māori growing up, as her parents believed it would be better for their children to speak English.

Baker received an American Field Service (AFS) Scholarship in 1958 and she went to West Bend in Wisconsin. She returned to Wellington and studied at Wellington Polytechnic. She later became the first New Zealand National Representative of the American Field Service from 1972 to 1976, pioneering marae visits for incoming AFS scholars.

Career

Baker became invested in contemporary Māori theatre as it was emerging in the 1970s alongside Bruce Stewart, Rowley Habib (Rore Hapipi) and Jim Moriarty.[4] [5] In 1976 Baker was an actor with the newly formed company Te Ika a Maui Players to present the stage production Death of the Land written by Habib.[6] Death of the Land was a courtroom drama about the sale of Māori land, and Baker went on to also act in the television production in 1978 that had footage of the 1975 Māori Land March.[7] These productions were notable at the time as New Zealand stories about Māori issues written by a Māori person and were part of the Māori renaissance.[8] [9] [10] Baker took place in an Maori artists and writers conference (hui) at Toa Rangatira Marae, Porirua in 1978.[11] Baker was a tutor at Wellington Polytechnic in 1979[12] and realised she wanted to learn Māori language herself. She went to Rotorua for this purpose and learnt on a marae at age 40.

In the 1980s Baker was part of Te Manu Aute, a collective of Māori film-makers who set about to influence screen production in New Zealand. The collective included Barry Barclay, Tama Poata, Merata Mita, Don Selwyn, Annie Keating and Karen Sidney. The collective's philosophy was "Māori are trained by other Māori, in a Māori environment, in Māori projects"[13] to be creating "a stronger Māori presence and voice in the telling of our stories".[14] The current screen advocacy group for Māori, Ngā Aho Whakaari, have acknowledged Baker along with others for their contributions to Māori film makers.

She was also part of the Māori women artist's collective Haeata, which was formed in 1983 around a publishing project called Herstory Diary and had a goal to be "nurturing the talents of new and young Māori women artists".[15] Notably, she was part of an exhibition Karanga Karanga at the City Gallery in Wellington (1986) organised by Haeata. The show was in part a response to Te Māori, a major international exhibition of Māori art that did not include women's arts forms.[16] [17]

Throughout her career, Baker was an advocate for Māori art. In 1984 Baker coordinated the New Zealand component at the fourth South Pacific Festival of Arts in Noumea. She said at the time: "Contemporary Māori art is streaks ahead of the New Zealand art form whatever that is. It has been boiling away for the last 30 years and has crescendos of energy yet to be seen in a Pacific context."[18] In the mid-1980s she oversaw Māori input into a curriculum review at the Department of Education. She was also part of the Wellington Professional Working Party group that in 1994 wrote a report to the Wellington City Council and the Arts Council (Creative New Zealand) recommending that Downstage Theatre become a New Zealand focused theatre as a point of difference to Circa Theatre and that it was "Māori, bicultural, local and new".

Baker was a kaumātua of Taki Rua Theatre and when they changed their name in 1992 as part of a bicultural journey it was Baker who gifted 'Taki Rua' from a weaving expression for 'a pattern of twos', representing "the weaving together of tangata whenua and tauiwi (those from across other waters)".[19] [20] [21] [22] Baker was an influence on younger theatre practitioners including writer Riwia Brown and actor and director Nancy Brunning.[23] [24] Brunning said in 2018:[25]

I thank Tungia Baker, Wi Kuki Kaa, Rona Bailey, Bob Wiki, Rowley Habib, Don Selwyn and Keri Kaa for creating and establishing a Māori theatre industry for us.
In 1993 Baker narrated The Clio Legacy by Dorothy Buchanan and Witi Ihimaera with opera singer Helen Medlyn at the Composing Women's Festival in the Wellington Town Hall.[26] Baker featured on an album recorded by Rattle Records in 1998 called Ipu by Gillian Whitehead with Richard Nunns, Judy Bailey and Georg Pedersen.[27] Whitehead tells of a time when they were making Ipu when Baker gave musician Nunns a Māori rattle instrument she had made as a replica of one from a museum, "another sound came back into the modern world".[28]

Baker had a wide range of creative interests and skills outside of the performing arts. Weaving was one of her skills; she learnt the traditional art of 'raranga harakeke' in Rotorua,[29] [30] and created the tukutuku panels for the marae at Bruce Bay. She worked in radio and was a presenter at the Wellington Māori radio station Te Upoko o Te Ika from 1988 to 1991 including hosting the programme ‘Te Kupenga Kōrero'.[31] Baker recorded the story Mihipeka; Early years (1991) by Mihi Edwards that aired on Radio New Zealand.[32] She was also the producer for television documentary A Whale Out My Window (1996), about the Southern Right whales at Campbell Island in sub-Antarctic.[33] In 2000 she led a workshop at Otago University at a conference 'He Minenga Whakatū Hua o te Ao' at Murihiki Marae called Māori in Science or Science in Māori.[34]

Baker moved to the West Coast of New Zealand to take up a management role at Grey Base Hospital in the 1990s. While based on the West Coast she scripted a play about Ngāi Tahu prophet Te Maiharoa, was involved in community arts and festival initiatives.[35] A sculpture Baker made from driftwood and flax, Kupenga, at the inaugural West Coast Driftwood and Sand competition on Hokitika Beach won an award.[36]

Baker had a Māori korowai cloak presented to her by King Koroki, the Māori King in 1958 as an award for Tungia's achievement as the first Maori female American Field Service scholar. She took this cloak with her to the United States when she was 18, and the cloak has been used on a number of important occasions since, including at the university graduation of her daughter Pearl, at Baker's funeral on her casket and at the funeral of King Koroki's daughter Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu at Tūrangawaewae where Baker first received the cloak.[37]

Memberships and associations

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotesRef
1978Death of the LandTelevision
1986Open HouseNgahuia MitchellTelevision[40]
1987Open HouseNgahuia MitchellTelevision
1993The Piano Hira Feature[41]
1997Mirror MirrorMakaretaTelevision (2 ep's)
1998A Difficult WomanArahita TahangaTelevision (3 ep's)
2003The Legend of Johnny Lingo Turtle Island Grandmother (final film role)

Theatre

Selected productions include:

YearTitleAuthorDirectorVenueRef
1976Death of the LandRowley HabibUnity Theatre, Wellington and other venues[42]
1990Te Hara (The Sin)John BroughtonAnne KeatingTaki Rua Theatre, Wellington[43]
1992Wahine ToaJan Bolwell (Choreographer)Keri Kaa; Jan Bolwell; Sunny AmeyTaki Rua Theatre[44]
1994Roimata Jim MoriartyTaki Rua Theatre
1998Outrageous Fortune (Opera)Music by Gillian Whitehead, text by Christine JohnstonLouise PetherbridgeTrust Bank Theatre, Dunedin[45]

Personal life and death

Baker had four daughters.[46] She died of cancer in Ōtaki on 25 July 2005,[3] [47] and was buried in Rangiātea churchyard.[48]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Tungia Dorothea Gloria Baker. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830093704/https://www.komako.org.nz/person/46. 30 August 2021. 30 August 2021. Komako.
  2. Web site: 1 January 1939. Baker, Tungia Dorothea, 1939–2005. live. 30 August 2021. National Library of New Zealand. en-NZ. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830100053/https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22452574.
  3. Web site: Death search: registration number 2005/17669 . Births, deaths & marriages online . Department of Internal Affairs . 5 December 2021.
  4. Book: Smythe, John. Downstage upfront : the first 40 years of New Zealand's longest-running professional theatre. 2004. Victoria University Press. 0-86473-489-1. Wellington, N.Z.. 60386677.
  5. Book: Greenwood, Janinka . 2002 . Christchurch College of Education . 0-908858-06-X . Christchurch, N.Z. . 156029010 . Janinka Greenwood.
  6. Web site: 22 October 2014. Mark Derby and Briar Grace-Smith. First Māori theatre companies, 1970–1990. live. 30 August 2021. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. en-NZ. 29 September 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200929053808/https://teara.govt.nz/en/maori-theatre-te-whare-tapere-hou/page-2.
  7. Web site: Credits Death of the Land Television. live. 30 August 2021. NZ On Screen. en-NZ. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830083646/https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/death-of-the-land-1978/credits.
  8. Web site: Death of the Land Television. live. 30 August 2021. NZ On Screen. en-NZ. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830091235/https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/death-of-the-land-1978.
  9. Book: Huria, John. 2013. Laurie Atkinson, David O'Donnell. 978-0-908607-45-7. [Wellington] New Zealand. 34–42. Mā te Rēhia e Kawa: Māori Theatre in the 1990s. 864712401.
  10. Web site: Prominent Māori writer Rowley Habib passes away. 30 August 2021. Māori Television. en. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830091245/https://www.teaomaori.news/prominent-maori-writer-rowley-habib-passes-away. live.
  11. Web site: 6 June 1978. Maori artists and writers conference (hui), Toa Rangatira Marae, Porirua. live. 30 August 2021. National Library of New Zealand. en. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830101132/https://natlib.govt.nz/records/35831069.
  12. Web site: PART C: SECTION 2 Full-time Tutors at Technical Institutes. live. 31 August 2021. THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 31 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210831013133/http://www.nzlii.org/nz/other/nz_gazette/1980/27/71.
  13. Book: Murray, Stuart. 2008. Huia. 978-1-86969-328-2. Wellington, N.Z.. 219583209.
  14. Web site: 28 October 2014. Up for tender: $3M for Māori programmes. 31 August 2021. SCREENZ. en-GB. 31 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210831013135/http://www.screenz.co.nz/tender-3m-maori-programmes/. live.
  15. Web site: Haeata. live. 31 August 2021. NZHistory, New Zealand history online. 20 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211020010234/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/women-together/haeata.
  16. Web site: City Gallery Wellington. live. 30 August 2021. City Gallery. en-NZ. 15 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210815083653/https://citygallery.org.nz/exhibitions/karanga-karanga/.
  17. Web site: Karanga Karanga. live. 30 August 2021. Te Tuhi. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830112725/https://tetuhi.art/exhibition/karanga-karanga/.
  18. Tungia Baker . Tu Tangata . 1 October 1984 . 20 . 13 . 9 September 2021 . 9 September 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210909014909/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/TUTANG19841001.2.17 . live .
  19. Web site: 22 October 2014. Mark Derby and Briar Grace-Smith. Consolidating Māori theatre, 1990s onwards. live. 30 August 2021. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. en-NZ. 10 July 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210710111931/https://teara.govt.nz/en/maori-theatre-te-whare-tapere-hou/page-3.
  20. Web site: Kutia. Kahu. 31 May 2017. Dance with my coloniser, dance with my culture. live. 1 September 2021. Radio New Zealand. en-nz. 1 September 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210901022034/https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/374642/dance-with-my-coloniser-dance-with-my-culture?fbclid=IwAR12jPftqtax4Q5XgsahtEP8S0kdm0IM_7bcDtYp8p2yFRtqOUbR7N16bnk.
  21. Web site: Dekker. Diane. 17 March 2013. Taki Rua: Brave new frontiers. live. 1 September 2021. Stuff. en. 20 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210520223018/https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/culture/8436785/Taki-Rua-Brave-new-frontiers.
  22. Book: 2013. Laurie Atkinson, David O'Donnell. 978-0-908607-45-7. [Wellington] New Zealand. 864712401.
  23. Brown. Riwia. 2020. Riwia Brown on Roimata. Playmarket Annual. 55. 6–7.
  24. Web site: New Zealand Theatre: theatre reviews, performance reviews. live. 30 August 2021. Theatreview. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830092910/https://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/production.php?id=6871.
  25. Web site: Pantograph Punch – Loose Canons: Nancy Brunning. 30 April 2020. 18 June 2018. Pantograph Punch. 27 May 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200527023518/https://www.pantograph-punch.com/posts/loose-canons-nancy-brunning. live.
  26. Web site: The Clio Legacy. live. 30 August 2021. SOUNZ. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830101132/https://sounz.org.nz/works/10570.
  27. Web site: 1 January 1998. Rattle Records: Ipu; Gillian Whitehead, Richard Nunns, Juldy Bailey, Georg Pedersen, Tungia Baker [1998. CD inner]]. live. 30 August 2021. National Library of New Zealand. English. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830105247/https://natlib.govt.nz/records/41799752.
  28. Web site: 11 November 2019. Breath of the Birds by Dame Gillian Whitehead. 31 August 2021. RNZ. en-nz. 25 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210825214806/https://www.rnz.co.nz/concert/programmes/appointment/audio/2018721678/the-lilburn-lecture-2019. live.
  29. Web site: FROM SPIRIT TO SPIRIT: TUI TUIA - GATHERING THREAD EPISODE ONE. live. 2 September 2021. Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision. en-NZ. 2 September 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210902063727/https://ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catalogue/catalogue-item?record_id=85056.
  30. Web site: Chininis. Jennifer. 2005. The Wild West. live. 2 September 2021. D Magazine. en. 2 September 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210902063759/https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2005/january/the-wild-west/.
  31. Web site: FROM SPIRIT TO SPIRIT: TE UPOKO O TE IKA - MAKING WAVES. EPISODE 5. live. 2 September 2021. Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision. en-NZ. 2 September 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210902061114/https://ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catalogue/catalogue-item?record_id=85060.
  32. Web site: 1 January 1991. Mihipeka; Early years, Tape 3 of 3 / by Mihi Edwards, told by Tungia Baker. live. 30 August 2021. National Library of New Zealand. en-NZ. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830105251/https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22786142.
  33. Web site: A Whale Out My Window Television. live. 30 August 2021. NZ On Screen. en-NZ. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830112341/https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/whale-out-my-window-1996.
  34. Web site: University of Otago. live. 30 August 2021. University of Otago. en-nz. 22 May 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210522061547/https://www.otago.ac.nz/.
  35. News: Madgwick. Paul. 27 July 2005. Maori actress dies. The Press. Christchurch. 31 August 2021. .
  36. News: 18 November 2002. Art from the sea. The Press. Christchurch. 31 August 2021. 31 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210831193844/https://www.proquest.com/docview/314485469. . live.
  37. News: Irving. Denise. 19 August 2006. Every day was special. Waikato Times; Hamilton. 31 August 2021. 31 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210831193843/https://www.proquest.com/docview/313287153. . live.
  38. Book: Guest, Bill. 2010. Victoria University Press. Ginny Sullivan, Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School. 978-0-86473-642-0. Wellington [N.Z.]. 669968400.
  39. News: Blundell. Kay. 28 July 2005. 'Woman of words' left legacy in karanga work. Dominion Post. 31 August 2021. .
  40. Web site: Screen. NZ On. Credits Open House Series Television. live. 31 August 2021. NZ On Screen. en-NZ. 31 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210831035649/https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/open-house-1986/series/credits.
  41. Web site: Marae – The Piano Story Television. live. 30 August 2021. NZ On Screen. en-NZ. 31 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210831000615/https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/marae-the-piano-story-1993.
  42. Book: Maunder, Paul. 2013. 978-1-927145-45-6. Christchurch, New Zealand. 861221640.
  43. Web site: 1 January 1990. Interview with Tungia Baker and Lucy Te Moana on the play Te Hara. live. 30 August 2021. National Library of New Zealand. en-NZ. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830105253/https://natlib.govt.nz/records/35857088.
  44. Web site: Theatre 1 Database. live. 30 August 2021. Theatre Aotearoa database. 30 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210830082126/https://tadb.otago.ac.nz/theatre/Web/WebSearch.php?Session=Guest-X-317769358.
  45. News: White. Helen Watson. 4 October 1998. Opera of the land and people. Sunday Star – Times; Wellington. 31 August 2021. 31 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210831193846/https://www.proquest.com/docview/313931588. . live.
  46. News: Dekker. Diana. 4 August 2005. TV series made her a familiar face. Dominion Post; Wellington. 31 August 2021. 31 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210831193847/https://www.proquest.com/docview/338225676. . live.
  47. Book: Lentz, Harris M.. Obituaries In The Performing Arts, 2005. McFarland & Co.. 2006. 0-7864-2489-3. 17.
  48. Web site: 19 October 2009. Accolades flow for Martyn Sanderson. 31 August 2021. Stuff. en. 31 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210831014541/https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2980104/Accolades-flow-for-Martyn-Sanderson. live.

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