Māori and the stage and screen

TE WHARE TAPERE

Kia kawea tātou e te rēhia

Let us be taken by the spirit of joy, of entertainment 

This whakataukī (saying) indicates that performance-based entertainment was central to Māori society long before the first arrival of Europeans. Whare tapere was the name given to sites used for entertainments such as storytelling, dance, music and games. Sometimes this name referred to a special building, but more often a suitable outdoor location such as the base of a notable tree was designated a whare tapere. A whare mātoro was a form of whare tapere that offered entertainment specifically by and for young people. A travelling troupe of entertainers who staged whare tapere in a succession of communities was called a whare karioi.

Source: Māori theatre - te whare tapere hōu - Origins of Māori theatre, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand  

THEATRE

In the 1980s the renaissance of Māori culture brought a spectacular growth of Māori actors on stage and screen. Leading actors such as Jim Moriarty, George Henare and Wi Kuki Kaa moved easily between mainstream European-styled theatre and Māori marae-based theatre. Rawiri Paratene and Rangimoana Taylor were among the early graduates of the New Zealand Drama School in the 1970s. 

With the formation of Māori theatre groups such as Maranga Mai in Auckland and Taki Rua Theatre in Wellington, the number of Māori actors grew. Taki Rua started as a bicultural company and then became purely Māori with seasons of plays in te reo Māori. In 1988 the New Zealand Drama School changed its name to Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: New Zealand Drama School, and adopted a bicultural approach to teaching drama.

Source:  Actors and acting - Multiculturalism and acting, 1980 to 2013, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand  

In the 21st century, Māori theatre has explored genres much wider than agitprop theatre and marae-based traditional stories. Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, also well-known as screen actors and directors, turned legends into irreverent comedy in The untold tales of Maui, which toured nationally in 2003–4. Tawata Productions premiered Miria George’s science fiction-influenced and what remains in Cambridge, UK, in 2006. Playwrights such as Albert Belz (Awhi tapu, Yours truly, Te karakia) and Whiti Hereaka (Fallow, Te kaupoi, Raw men) have dealt with issues not previously seen as intrinsically Māori.

Source: Māori theatre - te whare tapere hōu - Consolidating Māori theatre, 1990s onwards, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand 

FILM

The earliest films made in New Zealand have been lost due to the fragile nature of film. The first were made in the 1910s by overseas crews. Early films often used Māori culture as an exotic drawcard. Rudall Hayward had a 50-year career in film, beginning with black and white silent films. His To love a Maori (1972) was the first colour feature film made by a New Zealander. He is notable for including a Māori perspective in his films. His first wife Hilda and his second wife Ramai were both important collaborators.

Source: Feature film, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand    

John O’Shea has been called the father of New Zealand film. He was also interested in looking at race relations in his films, such as Broken barrier (1952).

Source: Feature film, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand  

In the 1980s, for the first time, students were able to learn film-making skills in tertiary institutions, increasing the potential for documentary projects. The decade also saw production of some important left-wing films, including:

• Bastion Point: day 507 (1980), a powerful work by Merata Mita, Gerd Pohlmann and Leon Narbey, which documented the land-rights occupation of Takaparawhā (Bastion Point) by members of Ngāti Whātua
• The bridge: a story of men in dispute (1981), directed by Gerd Pohlmann and Merata Mita, on a long-running industrial dispute over the building of the Māngere Bridge.

One of the most significant documentaries of the 1980s was the feature-length Patu! (1983), on the protests against the 1981 rugby tour of New Zealand by apartheid South Africa’s Springbok rugby team. Directed by Merata Mita with input from a large number of New Zealand’s film-makers, Patu! was an important counter to the government’s version of events and was the first feature-length New Zealand documentary directed by a woman.

Source: Documentary film - From the 1980s to 2000, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand  

There was an explosion of film-making in the 1980s and more than 50 films were produced. Women directors, including Melanie Read and Gaylene Preston, challenged the male domination of the industry. Merata Mita’s Mauri (1988) was the first feature directed and written by a Māori woman, and the first from an entirely Māori perspective.

Source: Feature film, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand  

Mana waka (1990), directed by Merata Mita, told the story of war canoes (waka taua) built to celebrate the 1940 centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and screened in 1996 to celebrate the centenary of cinema. It used footage shot by Pākehā film-maker Jim Manley in the 1930s. Support came from the New Zealand Film Archive (now Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision), Manley’s descendants and the Māori queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu. 

Source: Documentary film - From the 1980s to 2000, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand   

MERATA MITA (NGĀTI PIKIAO, NGĀI TE RANGI)    

RAMAI HAYWARD (NGĀTI KAHUNGUNU, NGĀI TAHU) 

Ramai Hayward was a pioneering documentary and feature film-maker. She trained as a photographer in the mid-1930s and had established her own studio in Auckland when she starred in Rudall Hayward’s landmark film Rewi’s last stand (1940). This was the beginning of a 34-year film-making partnership with Hayward. Ramai was the driving force behind a series of educational films in the 1950s and 1960s, and one of the first western film-makers to visit Communist China. Some of her films explored Māori society and highlighted discrimination against Māori. As a Māori woman, she was a doubly unique figure in an industry dominated by Pākehā men.

Source: Hayward, Ramai Rongomaitara, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand  

WI KUKI KAA (NGATI POROU, NGATI KAHUNGUNU)  

JIM MORIARTY (NGĀTI TOA, NGĀTI KOATA, NGĀTI KANUNGUNU)  

TAINUI STEPHENS (TE RARAWA)

DON SELWYN (NGĀTI KURI, TE AUPOURI) 

RAWIRI PARATENE (NGĀ PUHI)  

GEORGE WINIATA HENARE (NGĀTI POROU, NGĀTI HINE) 

NANCY BRUNNING (NGĀTI RAUKAWA, NGĀI TUHOE)  

ANZAC WALLACE (NGĀ PUHI)  

TEMUERA MORRISON (TE ARAWA, NGĀTI WHAKAUE, NGĀTI MANIAPOTO, NGĀTI RARUA)    

HIMIONA GRACE (NGĀTI TOA, NGĀTI RAUKAWA)  

RENA OWEN (NGĀTI HINE, NGĀ PUHI)   

RANGIMOANA TAYLOR (TE WHĀNAU-Ā-APANUI, NGĀTI POROU, TARANAKI) 

PAORA TE OTI TAKARANGI JOSEPH (ATIHAU-A-PAPAARANGI, NGA RAURU) 

RACHEL TE AO MAARAMA HOUSE (NGĀI TAHU, NGĀTI MUTUNGA)  

CLIFF CURTIS (TE ARAWA, NGĀTI HAUITI)   

BRIAR GRACE SMITH (NGĀ PUHI, NGĀTI WAI)  

AINSLEY GARDINER (TE WHĀNAU-Ā-APANUI, NGĀTI PIKIAO, NGĀTI AWA)   

LEE TAMAHORI (NGĀTI POROU) 

TAIKA WATITI (TE-WHĀNAU-Ā-APANUI) 

CHELSEA WINSTANLEY (NGĀTI RANGINUI, NGĀI TE RANGI) 

KEISHA CASTLE HUGHES  

JAMES ROLLESTON (NGĀI TE RANGI, TE ARAWA, NGĀTI POROU, WHAKATŌHEA) 

JULIAN DENNISON (NGĀTI HAUĀ) 

CIAN ELYSE WHITE (TE ARAWA)

This story was curated and compiled by Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa | National Library of New Zealand, Services to Schools staff, November 2020.