page_title: Nambassa Winter Show with Mahana
section_title: Mahana Rock opera
hierarchical_section_title: Nambassa Winter Show with Mahana / Mahana Rock opera
caption_attribution_description: English: These photoes were taken by the official Nambassa photographer at the 1978 Nambassa Winter Show in New Zealand. Photographer Paul Gilbert. Photo courtesy of "Nambassa a New Direction." Uploaded by Mombas 08:58, 3 May 2007 (UTC) Summary Terms of Use: 1/ All users of this image are required to attribute this work to "Nambassa Trust and Peter Terry" and the URL: " http://www.nambassa.com " is to accompany all use. 2/ Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor. 3/ For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Statement by Nambassa Trust and Peter Terry
context_page_description: The Nambassa Winter Show with Mahana was all about a bunch of aspiring young hippie entertainers who moved into a youth camp in west Auckland, out of which this community of 60 people produced and directed two musical theatrical productions and toured the North Island of New Zealand in a convoy of Mobile homes, buses and vans, performing at major centres and theatres throughout September and October 1978. While initially four main shows were scheduled for this collective theatre company, repeat and spontaneous performances around the nation saw this number of live performances increased to over 10. This theatrical extravaganza was organised by the Nambassa Trust as part of its national promotion of the arts and towards promoting its 1979 three-day music, crafts and Alternative lifestyle festival, which was held in Waihi and attracted 70,000 people.
  The Winter Show production had two parts. The Mahana rock opera, a live rock-theatre production made up of both Māori and Pākehā, combining traditional Māori songs and dances with modern rock music, and depicting early white European colonisation of New Zealand and the impact this had on its local indigenous Māori people.
context_section_description: To most people Mahana was a rock band.
  To the folk involved Mahana was a travelling road-show,
  
  a spiritual family, a community on wheels.
  The musical production of  The Mahana rock opera was a colourful and perceptive view of early New Zealand life and began with the coming of the Māori in canoes from the South West Pacific, their meeting on the high seas and subsequent voyaging to Aotearoa. It portrayed the arrival of the white man, his politics, his religion, early colonisation and the often negative transformation of the country dear to Māoridom. The storyline and music climaxed as Māori and Pākehā do battle with each other, and continued with the eventual reconciliation of the two races. The rock opera employed many special effects, costumes, and some 20 actors, singers and musicians.
  Mahana was formed in 1977 when a group of Māori and Pākehā friends who were mobile-truckers started jamming together. What they shared was a common bond. They were all mobile and lived with their families in a nomadic gypsy lifestyle in handcrafted house trucks and buses. They first came to notoriety when they performed on the Aerial Railway stage at the 1978 Nambassa three-day festival, becoming a huge hit. They called themselves "Mahana" in honour of a friend who loaned them his equipment to perform the 1978 festival. Within 24 hours and by popular acclaim they were headlining on the Nambassa main stage with a 20,000W PA in front of tens of thousands of people.
  After the Winter show Mahana performed at the Nambassa 1979 three-day festival in Waihi in front of 40,000 fans and again at the 1981 five-day celebration up Waitawheta valley. At Nambassa 1979 they formed their own self-contained gypsy encampment circle incorporating dozens of house-trucks and buses. This was the beginning of the Road-show Fayre era, and within their large magic circle enclosure, continuous entertainment and theatre was available for children and adults, organised and spontaneous. After the festival the Roadshow Fayre and Mahana continued their musically-founded gypsy lifestyle, touring from town to town entertaining people throughout the nation. Mahana was filmed live on the main stage at Nambassa 1979. The film was part of the New Zealand Film Commissions entry to the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.
  By telling the story of New Zealand through a musical blending of the two cultures it was hoped that the Rock Opera would provide a vehicle to express their collective feeling of Ko Tahi Tatou, "We are one together."
  Mahana Rock Opera written by Billy TK and Mahana, and Produced and Directed by John Tucker and Mahana.
caption: Mahana
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