Reihana Haronga, a professional actor who trained under Simon Ferry and Bert vanDijk at UCOL in 1999/2000.

Reihana has worked extensively in professional theatre up until 5 years ago when he chose to retrain at Massey University (Primary Teaching). He now works as a teacher and as a professional actor when time allows.

This theatre company started in 2010 producing the play “Purapurawhetu” by Briar Grace-Smith.

Our name comes from our first performance. Pūanga is the first star seen in the sky at Matariki – a time significant to Maori and the timing of our theatre company forming in 2010. It was also the star mentioned in “Purapurawhetu” – our first production. Whakaari means the work of the arts. So it is about the beauty and new beginnings of our Arts works.

Our kaupapa, or way of working, is we want to produce professional contemporary New Zealand theatre for our Manawatu audiences, with a focus on promoting and supporting our Feilding community as much as possible. We want to present professional and diverse theatre while working collaboratively with artists in our community, as well as inviting professional groups to bring their work into our community – as happened with “Party with the Aunties” and “He Reo Aroha”.

GALLERY