Kihikihi - He Kūaha Whetū

Commissioned by CIRCUIT and Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre, Jamie Berry's He Kūaha Whetū transforms the Arts Centre projection screen into a stellar gateway to the stars.

Guided by Matariki values, the work invites subtle encounters with ancestry, stars, and memory. At the heart of the work is the kihikihi (cicada) — a sacred tohu of time, renewal, and endurance across Indigenous cultures. In te ao Māori, the kihikihi signals raumati and the intensifying voice of the whenua. Across other Indigenous cosmologies, it marks cycles of rebirth and continuity. The work allows these resonances to sit together, creating a shared space of listening.

Rather than demanding attention, the 20 minute work unfolds gently over time. Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre becomes a place where hidden stories quietly surface, everyday movement intersects with cosmic time and viewers are invited into moemoeā (dreaming forward).