Juanita Hepi

Juanita Hepi (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāi Tukairangi) is a multidisciplinary artist, producer, educator and researcher who has performed extensively throughout Aotearoa, NZ. She toured the Māori Troilus and Cressida to Shakespeare’s Globe in London for which she was nominated for a Chapman Tripp award, and starred in Himiona Grace’s award winning film The Pā Boys. Juanita is the director of Taki Rua’s 2020 te reo Māori touring season, Nga Mānu Rōreka and is completing her final year of a Masters in Māori and Indigenous Leadership. She is currently producing and directing Tūmahana alongside the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and Circo Kali, which is a theatre epic based on the 1849 writings of Matiaha Tiramorehu. Working with this text has been a full circle journey for Juanita whose passions lie in the narratives of her tūrakawaewae / place to stand in Ōtautahi, and her marae at Rāpaki.