Ahi Kā — Keeping the Home Fires Burning
Client: Wellington City Council
Event: Ahi Kā, Matariki ki Pōneke
Location: Wellington Waterfront, including Te Papa Tongarewa
Involvement: Inaugural event (2021) to present
The EVENT
Ahi Kā — which translates as "keep the home fires burning" — is Wellington City Council's centrepiece celebration of Matariki, held each year on the Wellington Waterfront as part of the wider Matariki ki Pōneke festival. When the first event took place on 2 and 3 July 2021, it introduced the city to something it had not seen before: a large-scale, immersive journey through Māori storytelling, fire, performance, and light — anchored by dramatic projections onto the face of Te Papa Tongarewa.
What began as a two-night event has grown steadily in both scale and ambition. By 2022, Ahi Kā was drawing more than 20,000 people over four nights. In 2025 it ran across four evenings in June, guiding thousands of visitors through a self-led experience structured around Past, Present, and Future — each zone marked by a tomokanga entranceway that carried its own cultural meaning.
The event is free, open to everyone, and deeply rooted in the dual observance of Matariki and Puanga — the twin markers of the Māori New Year that have been honoured in Aotearoa for more than 700 years.
The RELATIONSHIP
Streamliner Productions has been part of Ahi Kā since the very beginning. Commissioned by Wellington City Council to deliver the projection and technical production, Streamliner works closely with the content creators and cultural advisors behind each year's installation to ensure that what is designed can be delivered with precision and impact. That relationship has deepened with every event as the production has scaled and the ambition has grown.
The TECHNICAL SCOPE
Te Papa Tongarewa sits at the heart of Ahi Kā, and mapping it was never a straightforward undertaking. The building is large, angular, and faces the water across multiple distinct planes. Streamliner carried out a full scan of the structure to produce accurate 3D models, which are provided to the content team for pre-visualisation and precise alignment. This process ensures that every element of the content is mapped exactly against the real geometry of the building — curves, recesses, columns, and all — before a single projector is switched on.
On event nights, Streamliner deploys 14 large-format laser projectors across the waterfront, ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 lumens. Projections cover three sides of Te Papa, extending the visual experience across the full face of the building and wrapping around to the flanking facades. The historic boat shed nearby receives its own dedicated projection, drawing it into the wider installation and reinforcing the sense that the entire precinct has come alive.
All projection playback is managed through Disguise servers, giving the team precise frame-level control over every surface simultaneously. Pre-visualisation work carried out in Disguise ahead of the event allows the team to test, refine, and problem-solve before anything is installed on site — essential when working at this scale across a precinct as complex and visible as Wellington's waterfront.
The WAHAROA
Alongside the projections, Streamliner has been responsible for producing and deploying multiple digital waharoa — gateway structures that welcome visitors into the event space and carry significant cultural symbolism. Displayed on large digital screens, these entranceways have featured work by prominent Māori artists, with designs drawing on the history and natural environment of Te Whanganui-a-Tara. One waharoa has depicted the taniwha Ngake and Whātaitai, whose stories shaped the Wellington harbour; another has drawn on Ngā Hau E Wha, the Four Winds, and the diverse cultures of the city. Positioned at key thresholds across the waterfront, they set the tone for everything that follows.
WHAT IT TAKES
Producing an event of this nature at this scale, on a fully public waterfront, in the middle of a Wellington winter, demands careful planning at every level. Projection distances across the waterfront are significant, and the outdoor environment means the team works to tolerances that an indoor venue never requires. Rigging, power, cable runs, weather contingency, and public safety all have to be resolved without compromising the experience for the people walking through it.
Year on year, the complexity has increased as the event has grown. More projectors, more surfaces, more zones, more visitors. Streamliner has scaled the production to meet that growth while maintaining the consistency and quality that Wellington City Council and its audiences have come to expect.
WHY IT ENDURES
There are events, and then there are events that mean something to a city. Ahi Kā has become part of how Wellington marks time — a moment each year when the waterfront transforms and the stories of this place are projected, literally, onto its most prominent walls. Being part of that from the beginning, and continuing to help build it into what it is now, is something Streamliner carries with genuine pride.
