INAUGURAL DRONE DISPLAY CELEBRATES THE STORIES OF MATARIKI

A match made in the heavens – New Zealand’s ARONUI Indigenous Arts Festival & Australia’s First Lights

ARONUI Indigenous Arts Festival with Australian company First Lights presented a community display using 160 choregraphed drones, only the second of its kind in Aoteoroa, to celebrate ‘Matariki’, the Māori New Year.

Attracting an estimated thirty thousand people over two nights, the dramatic retelling of the traditional tales associated with Matariki has laid strong foundations for future Kiwi collaborations between First Lights and ARONUI.

First Lights

Rotorua-based ARONUI Indigenous Arts Festival planned to do a drone show after founding festival director Cian Elyse White attended a drone show at the Perth International Arts Festival in February last year. Cian, a Māori artist and the creative force behind the concept, approached Tom Mùller from Arts & Culture organisation Fremantle Biennale, who worked closely with Rob Lednor and his company Stellar Lights to produce and support storytelling experiences led by First Nations knowledge holders from Australia.

With a background in drone technology in the oil and gas industries and a desire to explore more creative applications, Rob was the perfect partner when it came to seeking out the expertise for complex drone operations. With time on their hands during the pandemic, they combined their passions, Tom with a commitment in supporting First Nation-led stories augmented by future technologies, and Robert for the creative application of drones, to form joint venture First Lights.

Their first show ‘Moombaki’, designed by Noongar Artist Ilona McGuire, was a huge success and the team were invited to apply for other funding sources. Benefitting from a federal grant, newly developed and site responsive drone light shows took place across Australia in 2023, delivering multiple shows specific to each location, with the art direction led by Traditional Owners and Aboriginal artists, sharing ancient knowledge, living stories and history of place. This opened up further opportunities for Stellar Lights including a world first, a combined drone light and pyrotechnic show with pyro fired off the drones, at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in a stadium of 40,000 for 15 consecutive nights.

ARONUI

ARONUI Indigenous Arts Festival was founded in 2019 by Cian Elyse White and a group of Māori arts leaders who whakapapa to Te Arawa Waka. ARONUI is committed to creating opportunities for people to experience indigenous art locally and to champion indigenous artists. The team regularly engage with indigenous artists from other regions and countries in order to expand their whāriki (woven mat) for future festivals and arts collaborations. It was to this end that ARONUI Founder, Director and artist Cian Elyse White (Ngāti Pikiao), along with Te Reo Māori language expert and show co-creator Mataia Keepa (Ngāti Whakaue), travelled to Perth for a creative workshop with Fremantle Biennale and shared their show idea ‘Matariki’.

Tom recalls their first meeting, “They are a strong organisation with huge pride in their culture and a determination about how their stories should be told. As a result, the process was highly collaborative to encapsulate their compelling artistic direction.”

Other artists included Māori composer James Webster with First Light’s animator Jarrad Russel and sound designers Envelope Audio, comprising Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan. Rob explains, “We talked the creatives through how the process works and explained that it is not dissimilar to making a short movie. They formulate the plot, the script and the drama, and we advise if it is possible in terms of the technology, drone limitations and size, offering alternative solutions to achieve their vision. Essentially we are bringing together two universes.”

First Light’s Inaugural International Show

After a significant amount of groundwork in conjunction with the ARONUI team, Rob describes the actual delivery as being straightforward, aside from acquiring approvals from the Civil Aviation Authority, “Drone technology for community displays in New Zealand is very much in its infancy and regulatory approval takes about eighteen months which we didn’t have. Initially we investigated buying a company with a licence, but that didn’t come to fruition, so we partnered with a local outfit, Aerotronics Ltd, a drone company founded by pilots who were prepared to act as our New Zealand consultants and take on the operational risk.” The show utilised 160 Uvify IFO drones, with control software ‘Drone Show Software’ by SPH Engineering. Timecode was used to synchronise the audio and drone display.

Audiences were invited to look to the night sky and witness the telling of the stories connected to the Matariki (Pleiades) star cluster. The choregraphed drones accompanied by music and narration by Rangitiaria Tibble, Cian Elyse White and Mataia Keepa, imparted the tale of Taramainuku, captain of Te Waka o Rangi, a canoe that traverses the sky with a large net, collecting the souls of loved ones who have passed away across the year. This can be found in the night sky; Orion’s Belt being the ‘pot’, Te kokotā (Hyades) being the sails of the ship, and Matariki forming the ihu or the nose of the ship. In May, Te Waka o Rangi sails beneath the horizon, rising again in June/July to cast its net into the sky, releasing the collected souls to be immortalised forever as stars and signalling the start of a new year, ‘Matariki’.

With the spectacular backdrop provided by Kouramāwhitiwhiti (the Rotorua Lakefront), the display took on an added dimension with the reflection on the water visible to the audience along the shores of the lake, “We had planned for all eventualities, and everything went smoothly apart from thirty thousand people showing up! Even though it was a very similar delivery model to the one we had used in Australia, it was special because it was our first international event and had such meaning for ARONUI. We are on their journey empowering the Māori community to share their artwork using new technologies. We feel part of a significant paradigm shift.”

Future Kiwi Ventures

The success of Matariki has built strong foundations for future collaborations between ARONUI Indigenous Arts Festival and First Lights. Rob expands, “We are hoping to share the experience across both islands in the coming year. We are always innovating around how technology can augment contemporary art and we have something pretty special in the pipeline.”

Whilst both Tom and Rob enjoy the corporate and commercial arm of their business, storytelling is definitely their passion. Tom concludes, “I am very proud of our work in this area. It brings with it the most satisfaction because of the long lasting relationships developed with the artists and communities.”