Bless the Child

A child has died and Shardae, mother of the child, is held guilty until proven otherwise. 

A power-hungry lawyer, Khan Te Ahi Richards, is reluctantly dragged into the case to defend the mother as the whānau close ranks. And rumbling from beneath is Rūaumoko, god of earthquakes and unborn children. Now the mother, the lawyer and the wayward ones are all in search of an answer – who took the life of baby Ara?

Challenging and thought-provoking, Bless the Child is a story of life and death, good versus evil. In an unflinching look at our society through a Māori lens, it uncovers the truth of our shared humanity – to protect the child.

Co-produced by the New Zealand Festival, Auckland Arts Festival and Tawata Productions