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“A Place to Stand: Land and Water in Māori Film” Deborah Walker-Morrison March 28, 2014

To Cite this Article: Walker-Morrison, Deborah. “A Place to Stand: Land and Water in Māori Film” Imagina- tions 5:1 (2014): Web (date accessed) 25-47. DOI: 10.17742/IMAGE.periph.5-1.3

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A PLACE TO STAND: LAND AND WATER IN MAORI FILM DEBORAH WALKER-MORRISON, UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND

New Zealand (NZ) Māori identity, as is L’identité Māori néo-zélandaise, à l’instar the case for indigenous peoples the world des autres peuples indigènes du monde, over, is inextricably linked to a sense of est inextricablement liée à un sens de place of origin, Tūrangawaewae, literally, l’origine géographique : Tūrangawaewae, “a place to stand one’s feet.” Place here is littéralement “un endroit pour poser obviously first and foremost about land, ses pieds.” Le lieu spécifique domine ici but also includes the rivers, lakes and sea la conception du territoire, mais cela that have sustained Māori communities n’exclut pas pour autant les rivières, les since their arrival in Aotearoa, lacs et l’océan qui ont permis la survie almost a thousand years ago. Linking du peuple Māori depuis son arrivée à representations of land and water to a re- Aotearoa, il y a près de mille ans. En reading of Paul Gilroy’s twin metaphors rapprochant les représentations de la of roots and routes, this paper reads issues terre et de l’eau de la double métaphore of loss, conservation, regaining and/or des « routes » et des « racines », cet article transformation of such a sense of place as examine les questions de la perte, de central to Māori fiction film. la conservation, de la récupération et/ ou de la transformation en lien avec le sentiment du lieu en tant qu’il occupe une place centrale dans le cinéma de fiction Māori.

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As Māori we describe ourselves astangata Roots and Routes whenua, “people of the land.” When we introduce ourselves in an official setting, This article proposes that representations we begin with the name of our waka or of land and water in Māori cinema can canoe, one of the fleets of vessels that be closely linked to the twin concepts carried our ancestors on routes across the of roots and routes proposed by Paul Pacific from Hawaiki (Raiatea, French Gilroy (1993) in his groundbreaking Polynesia) to Aotearoa, around 1100 study of transatlantic black identities and AD, some seven hundred years before modernity. I use Gilroy’s transnational, the arrival of the Pakeha.[1] We also give diasporic metaphor of routes, in an the name of our iwi (tribe(s)),hapu (sub- indigenous Māori context, as connected tribal grouping(s)) and details of to the element of water and signifying our whakapapa (ancestry). But cultural return, conceptual mobility, before naming people, we name spirituality and individual or collective our maunga and awa or moana, the change. Where Gilroy uses the mountain and river or lake that attach chronotope of the sailing ship to discuss each hapu to a specific place, our the initial traumatic displacement and geographical roots, our tūrangawaewae or subsequent journeys of discovery of “Place to Stand.”[2] blacks across the Atlantic, I use that of the waka or canoe (which can also The history of colonisation in this country, translate as vehicle/car) to reference the as elsewhere, has been largely a story of historical voyages of Māori ancestors uprooting and dispossession. The nation’s across the Pacific to Aotearoa and founding document, Te Tiriti ō Waitangi, contemporary voyages within and around signed in 1840 between representatives of the land. Secondly, for indigenous peoples the English Crown and iwi, while thought such as Maori, colonization occupies a by Māori signatories to guarantee their (loosely) similar position to that of slavery peoples’ sovereign rights and possession for Blacks in Gilroy’s work and results in of taonga or resources (including land and its own particular experiences of double water), was ignored for 150 years marked consciousness (the generally painful, by armed conflict (the Land Wars 1845- potentially empowering experience of 72) and ongoing despoliation and loss living more than one racial and cultural (see R. Walker1990). Māori politics and identity). Thirdly, I read the metaphor of arts, including literature and film, in this roots (which, in Gilroy, loosely signifies country, as elsewhere, have always been–– the distant original African homeland inevitably––“about” this central loss of and its multiple traditions) as relating geographical, socio-economic, cultural to the Māori relationship to the land we and spiritual roots. But they are also, more have inhabited for some 900 years, and to importantly, about regaining our “place,” our resulting position as tangata whenua, about routes of return and revival. people of the land, even or especially when this relationship has been and continues to be disrupted, via colonisation

IMAGINATIONS • 5 - 1 • 2014 • 26 WALKER-MORRISON and its postcolonial aftershocks. It is No Place to Stand in Once were important to note that in the films I Warriors (Lee Tamahori & Rewia discuss (in Māori terms, as with other Brown, 1994) Pacific and indigenous peoples), paired elements such as land and water / roots I begin with the fiction feature and routes, appear to function somewhat which really put Māori filmmaking differently to Western traditions, as on the local and international map: complementary poles rather than as the biggest grossing film in NZ film mutually exclusive opposites or Derridean history until Jackson’s Lord of The binaries, with one term always already Rings trilogy (2001-2003): director privileged over the other, both terms Lee Tamahori and scriptwriter Rewia subsequently collapsing into one another. Brown’sOnce Were Warriors, (1994) While the two can often be seen to merge, after Alan Duff’s 1990 novel of the same one element (land) or related set of terms name. Warriors screened at Cannes, and metaphors (roots, house, situated won awards at local and international identity, life force) does not exclude, festivals, was met with widespread critical oppose, sit in a hierarchical relationship applause and made $NZ25 million at the with, or collapse into the other (water, international box office.[3] canoe, fluidity, voyage, transformation, The film opens with a seven second renewal) (Walker-Morrison and Ramsay static shot of an idyllic rural landscape: 237). Thus the discovery of new routes, pasture lands, framed by snow-topped new ways of being and doing, can lead to mountains, reflected in a calm, blue a re-discovery of roots, a reinvention of lake. The soundtrack is of a different age, traditional identity and creation of a third murmuring voices and haunting, flute- space. like instrumentals.[4] A spectator viewing The following discussion outlines the the scene for the first time in 2013, post interplay of these related concepts at work Jackson’s Tolkien adaptations, might in a corpus of four fiction films, from the almost expect to meet the odd wizard or first Māori features of the 1980s (Ngāti, a hobbit or two... But no, as Tamahori’s Barclay 1987; Mauri, Mita 1988) to the camera pulls back, the scene is revealed popular successes of the 1990s (Once were to be a contemporary one; however, this Warriors, Tamahori 1994) and following is no pastoral paradise but a billboard decade (Whale Rider, Caro 2002). My illusion planted beside a screaming working definition of Māori cinema as motorway and neighbouring suburban cinema which tells Māori stories, written slum (see fig. 1a and 1b). Through by Māori, using Māori actors, and/ this opening “shot,” Tamahori clearly or directors, producers and crew, thus establishes the cruel contrast between the includes features directed and made by tourist myth (reinvigorated by Air New Pakeha and/or European (co-) producers, Zealand’s recent re-branding of Aotearoa however problematic the involvement as Middle Earth) and the ugly realities of these cultural outsiders may be of urban life for working-class Māori. considered in some quarters. [5] Moreover, the billboard advertises a fictitious power 27company, • 5 - 1 • 2014 ENZ • IMAGINATIONS Power, A PLACE TO STAND whose name references the privatisations environment and concomitant loss of of state-owned assets, begun in the 1980s cultural values and identity.[6] Moreover, and recently renewed by the current new- physical strength, the foundation of right government. Such policies have hegemonic Māori masculinity,[7] is generally not led to economic prosperity no longer a valued commodity in the for Māori, as the film graphically workplace under late capitalism, and demonstrates. Jake is unemployed. Unable to play the traditional masculine roles of protector and provider, cut off from his language, his culture, and his land, Jake has become “a slave to your fists, to the drink” as his battered but feisty wife, Beth (Rena Owen) retorts. Jake’s moral impotence is further highlighted when his eldest son, Nig (Julian Arahanga), joins a gang and the second son, Boogie (Taungaroa Emile), is sent away to a remand home. In a pivotal scene, the family hires a car and goes on a day trip to visit Boogie, stopping on the way by a lake. In the distance, between land and water, Beth points out her family’s marae (geographical Fig. 1a A billboard illusion locus of traditional community), Fig. 1b Urban living her tūrangawaewae, bathed in a nostalgic, almost mythical haze. Mythical for The route to the Pakeha city has been no the children, for whom the marae is Yellow Brick Road. There is no land, no an unvisited homeland, nostalgic for water, no place for urban Māori to stand Beth. Not so for Jake: we learn that in corporate NZ. During the ensuing because he is of a lower, “slave” caste, expository prologue, a graffiti tagged on Beth’s family refused the marriage so the a wrecked car gives the name of the first young couple eloped to the city and her modern Māori protest movement, Ngā children have never visited their mother’s Tama Toa (The Young Warriors), which (and their) whenua tuturu.[8] Rigid lobbied aggressively from the early 1970s adherence by older generations to certain for the return of Māori lands and the traditional values (caste system) is thus a recognition and revival of Māori language contributor to social dislocation.[9] The and cultural institutions. In this context, film downplays this element of Duff’s the almost schizophrenic, sociopathic novel;[10] in Rewia Brown’s screenplay, rage that inhabits the film’s male it is economic marginalization, loss of protagonist, Jake “The Muss” (Temuera cultural identity and separation from Morrison), reads unambiguously, as the land that pull the Heke family springing from a dysfunctional urban into a destructive, downward spiral of

IMAGINATIONS • 5 - 1 • 2014 • 28 WALKER-MORRISON double-consciousness, dysfunction and face and upper body are momentarily delinquency. “Embodying the (debated) superimposed on a low angle medium statistics of ‘Māori socio-economic close-up of the carved guardian standing disparity’” (Chapple 2000), the family atop the wharenui (meeting house), embarks on a path of destruction caused thus re-establishing the connection by poverty, unemployment, alcoholism, between Beth and her birthplace and domestic violence, sexual abuse and gang announcing her future role as guardian activity” (Martens 10).[11] Moreover, of her whānau (family). Silhouetted the film rewrites and amplifies Duff’s against a clear blue sky, the brightness of counterpoint theme of cultural the image contrasts poignantly with the renaissance, first and foremost in the funeral scenes that follow (see fig. 2) as character of Māori social worker Bennett the camera tracks down to thewharenui, (George Henare), whose “job” is to teach cuts to the massed mourners arriving with the audience––through Jake’s wayward the casket, watching over Grace’s body, teenage son––how masculine energy performing a haka in her honor before may be channeled into non-threatening her burial by the lakeside. forms of controlled, ritualized “violence” through traditional cultural practice, i.e. taiaha and haka (Māori martial arts and dance). The character of Bennett, who navigates easily between both worlds, enables Warriors to begin the process of positive return to traditional, community- based roots, which will be taken up by Beth. But the film also demonstrates how Fig. 2 Funeral scene tragically overdue is such a return for many Māori, since it is precipitated by It is the return to this space, to Boogie’s incarceration and the suicide her tūrangawaewae, that gives Beth of daughter Grace (Mamaengaroa the strength to leave her dysfunctional Kerr-Bell), victim of sexual abuse by marriage and effect her own cultural a trusted family member and close rebirth, for herself and her children, friend of her father’s (). declaring as the film ends: “Our people, The family (minus Jake) returns to once were warriors. They had mana, Beth’s marae for Grace’s tangi (funeral). pride, People with spirit.” The film Tamahori introduces the scene via a remains important in many senses, in sound bridge of women’s voices uttering articulating the devastating consequences a karanga (ritual women’s chant, calling of dispossession but also, in that “Beth’s visitors onto a marae) over a medium pathway from victim to leadership reflects close-up of Beth in her suburban state- the passage of women taking leadership house kitchen, as if calling her back to roles in the Māori renaissance of the her people. In a slow dissolve, Beth’s 1980s” (Joyce 163).

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Issues of central importance to the she is the new leader he is seeking for his individual and community are always people. Pai knows she has been chosen for played out in relation to land and water this role because of the strong connection as one’s Place to Stand. The community she has with the whales which are her iwi’s is rooted in this very literal sense, but guardians (the first ancestor, Paikea, from also a dimension of metaphorical fluidity whom she is a direct descendant, having is introduced through the element of arrived in Aotearoa, riding on the back of water, closely linked to spirituality–– a whale). The dramatic climax sees a score the word wairua, “spirit” contains the of whales strand themselves on the local word wai, “water.” The central body of beach, while the community struggle in water may be a lake (Warriors) or river vain to save them. When all appears lost, (e.g. River Queen, Vincent Ward, 2005) Pai rides the leader of the pod back out to but because most films about Māori sea and the others follow. (whether directed by Māori or not) are set in coastal locations, water becomes most As a film about roots (the centuries of closely associated with the sea, as food / communal experience and tradition life source and as connection to ancestral that bind the community to the land) and spiritual homelands. and routes (those that first carried the ancestors across the Pacific and those that Fluid Spaces in Whale Rider, (Niki carry their descendents away from and Caro, after , 2002) back to the land), Whale Rider mobilises key tropes in Māori film and literature. Apart from Jackson’s blockbuster Caro’s film follows Ihimaera’s novel in Tolkien adaptations, Nicky Caro’s screen advocating for the possibility of cultural interpretation of acclaimed Māori writer, revival while rejecting unquestioning Witi Ihimaera’s (The) Whale Rider has adherence to tradition: the patriarchal been New Zealand cinema’s most division of labour in the form of successful feature internationally since exclusive male leadership and rights the turn of the millennium. Voted People’s over traditional knowledge. Crucially Choice at the Toronto International Film also, both refuse a Manicheistic attitude Festival, the film won 29 international towards their characters, inviting empathy awards and twelve year-old female lead, or aroha for both the character of Pai, as a Keisha Castle-Hughes was nominated for young girl having to assert herself against an Oscar for Best Actress in 2002. the patriarchal authority of the man she Set in the small, contemporary, Māori most loves and admires; and also for her coastal community of Whangara Koro, as a leader who believes he is doing (birthplace of Ihimaera and setting for his best for his community. In the film, the novel), the film tells how a young girl, if Pai’s voiceover narration privileges her Pai Apirana struggles to convince her position, shot reverse shot sequences Koro, grandfather and local chief (Rawiri emphasise reciprocity and dialogue, Paratene, see fig. 3a and 3b), against and Caro’s use of point of view camera centuries of patriarchal tradition, that is extended to all the main characters,

IMAGINATIONS • 5 - 1 • 2014 • 30 WALKER-MORRISON including Koro. Moreover, early scenes chosen profession as a sculptor. Indeed demonstrate a more endearing side to this we learn that, like Māori artist Brett stubborn patriarch: the old man’s love for Graham who provided sculptures for the his granddaughter is revealed when we film and numerous others, the route to see him riding her home from school on Europe has been a productive one, and the cross bar of his bicycle, laughing and Porourangi has established something joking with her, later responding to her of an international reputation for curiosity about tribal history.[12] himself. Koro’s scathing, traditionalist dismissal of his son’s modernist inflected artwork as mere souvenirs serves to drive the two further apart. Moreover, the severing of Porourangi’s connection to the land and the tribe’s current lack of direction are given visual form in his half-finished waka, abandoned after the tragic circumstances surrounding Pai’s birth. This plotline, an invention of the filmscript, enables Caro to set up the possibility of redemptive return: Pai’s near-death experience prompting her father to complete the waka and (by extension) take up a key role in the community that is in tune with his own Figs. 3a & 3b Rawiri Paratene, Pai’s Koro (grandfather) aspirations and talent. Following the novel, Caro’s camera Koro’s younger son, Rawiri, is similarly constructs an intergenerational bond seen to have been driven away by his which Koro’s conscious mind, in its father’s single-minded obsession to find a obsessive search for a male heir, refuses male successor: as second son, his Māori for most of the film. martial arts talents remain unrecognized, The film also suggests that it is Koro’s and he has sunk into a lifestyle of drug intransigence that has driven away his and alcohol induced apathy. Thus, despite elder son, Porourangi (Cliff Curtis). never having left the community, in a Unwilling to take on the traditional spiritual sense he has become cut off mantle of leadership for which his father from his roots, through a combination has destined him, uprooted also by the of unemployment and filial disaffection. death in childbirth of his wife and first It is by becoming a mentor to Pai and by son (Pai’s twin), Porourangi (named leading the community in their attempt after the “original” paramount chief to rescue the stranded whales that he will of the eponymous iwi, Ngāti Porou, to regain his place to stand. which Ngāti Konohi belong) has left Aotearoa for Europe, to pursue his

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As many commentators (e.g. requires great strength. Koro then tosses Gauthier, Gonick, Message, Morris) overboard the whale tooth pendant he have noted, the film is firmly rooted wears as a symbol of his own leadership in its Māori community, with many and connection to the ancestral Whale scenes situated in the communal Rider, Paikea. After the boys’ failure to spaces of marae, wharenui (meeting retrieve the taonga (treasure), Koro sinks house) and wharekai (dining hall). In into depression, following which it will, keeping with the exploration of the of course, be Pai who retrieves the tooth tensions between tradition (roots) and of the whale and who will demonstrate change (routes), both spaces are the that she possesses the jawbone required to setting for customary, community-based wield it. ways of being and doing (local school concerts, communal meals, Koro’s revival The central drama plays out on the shore, of traditional martial arts and chiefly where land and water meet. The stranding knowledge) and the questioning of of the whales, spiritual guardians of tradition (Pai’s refusal to sit at the back the iwi, can be read as the result of, and of the marae atea (open space in front of a visual metaphor for the grandfather’s the wharenui) because she is a girl[13]; intransigence. The fluidity of tradition her pursuit of forbidden knowledges and is restored as the grandfather comes besting of Koro’s favoured contender). finally to accept the legitimacy of his It is significant that Pai’s dramatic granddaughter Pai’s future leadership. speech, which outlines her own and This concept is embodied, firstly, in Pai’s her community’s collective past and her riding of the lead whale, who heads democratic vision for its future (“We back out to sea, taking her on a journey can learn that if the knowledge is given which doubles that of her ancestor, before to everyone, we can have lots of leaders subsequently rendering her back to her and soon everyone will be strong. Not people. just the one being chosen”), will be Secondly, the metaphor of water as delivered (in traditional dress) in the movement and change is embodied space of the wharenui (Gonnick 314), thus in the final scene (not present in the revealing the latter’s pivotal role as both book), as the iwi paddle out on a traditional and transformational space. glittering sea, on Porourangi’s beautifully Emphasising also the transformational restored waka “manned” by both men role of water, the film stages the key and women, towards a fluid future that test of the young boys Koro has chosen has renewed its connection to its past as contenders to succeed him at sea. (see fig. 4). As Cineaste reviewer Paula Addressing the boys with a local proverb, Morris notes, the final scene “suggests Koro declares: “He rei ngā niho, he parāoa the beginning of a journey as great as the ngā kauae,” which translates as “if you Pacific voyages of old. The purpose this want to wield the whale’s tooth, you must time isn’t to find new land, but to create first have the jaw of a whale”: leadership a new world in the place where they live” (18).

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presently), angered that the film had been directed and scripted by a Pakeha, made by a largely Pakeha crew, and co-produced with an eye to targeting international commercial markets, dismissed Whale Rider as “indigenous film for beginners” (in Calder A2). In my view, the judgment Fig. 4 Porourangi’s waka is overly harsh, particularly given the The concept of water as a source of endorsement of Caro’s work by Ihimaera physical and intellectual mobility, (also executive co-producer), and spiritual connection and renewal, indeed given the enthusiastic involvement of as a kind of third space, takes on deep highly respected Māori actors and the resonance here. While the film ends on local community.[15] Nonetheless, one an open question mark as to what type cannot but share Barclay’s (and others’) of economic enterprises will enable disappointment that the film was not the people to move forward, a positive made with greater involvement by Māori reading of its narrative resolution would filmmakers. Moreover, the influence of argue that Pai’s role in the return of the the German co-producer on the story line artist Porourangi, in the rehabilitation is evident in the invention of a pregnant of his younger brother, Rawiri, in the German girlfriend for Porourangi, who opening of Koro to the possibility of appears suddenly on the beach in the change, and in the mobilisation of the final sequence, as the waka is launched. entire community catalyzes multiple Although she thankfully has no speaking routes for iwi to collectively navigate new part, her character, clearly designed to routes between modernity and tradition. enable the German target audience to [14] insert themselves into an uplifting story about indigenous eco-friendliness and As well as the superb performance by its cultural revival, detracts somewhat young female lead, the wild beauty of the from the local authenticity of the story. film’s coastal setting, its feel-good ending [16] Reliance on foreign, first-world and astute visual story-telling (combining capital can have problematic implications Māori ways of being with universal for the integrity of local and indigenous themes) made it a hit with audiences filmmaking. Nonetheless, in spite of and critics, locally and internationally. these shortcomings, it remains my view Even sceptical Māori academic, that Whale Rider constructs an experience Brendan Hokowhitu, had to admit that which is not only respectful and worthy “indigenous people from around the of its Māori source text, its culture and world have embraced the film” (133). community, it is also an empowering Still, echoing the reception of Warriors, one. As Marnina Gonick (and others) the film provoked fierce debate. Veteran have argued, “...in adapting and blending Māori filmmaker (whose traditional ways of knowing, generic work and influence I will discuss cinema conventions and oral cultural

sources, the film 33 engages • 5 - 1 • 2014 in •a IMAGINATIONSpolitics A PLACE TO STAND of re-imagination” (308), “effecting a filmmaking which Barclay would term decolonizing of the screen” (315). I would “Fourth Cinema” [18] and which would add that, through and beyond its feminist “show the way” for indigenous filmmakers (re-) configuration of Māori agentic the world over. subjectivity, the film’s mobilisation of the The title, Mauri, meaning life force, tropes of land and water, roots and routes, emphasizes the spiritual connection to suggest productive ways in which iwi can land and water and the importance of negotiate a third space between tradition birth place and ancestral connection and modernity. to land in the establishment of The Roots of Māori Cinema: Merata identity. Tūrangwaewae, one’s Place to Mita (1942-2010) and Barry Barclay Stand, is most often synonymous with (1944-2008) one’s place of birth (or the birthplace of one’s tipuna or ancestors), one’s whenua In the following sections, I want to tūturu, originary or true home. The suggest that Warriors, Whale Rider and film embodies this kaupapa (theme) other contemporary Māori films refer from its opening scenes of traditional back, explicitly or implicitly to the roots birthing practice, which demands that the of Māori cinema: the work of pioneer umbilical cord and placenta be returned documentary filmmakers, teachers to the earth, tying the child to its roots in and cultural activists Merata Mita the Land. and Barry Barclay,[17] both one-time members of Ngā Tama Toa, who (co-) This ceremony is instigated and wrote and directed the first two Māori performed by the film’s central full-length fiction features. Shot more character, kuia (grandmother or wise or less simultaneously, Ngāti (1987) woman) Kara (Eva Rickard), who is and Mauri (1988) stand as major bringing up her young granddaughter, landmarks of the Māori cultural Awatea (Rangimarie Delamare). Her renaissance which began to gain family’s land has been lost through momentum in the mid 1970s. Both films a miscarriage of Pakeha justice and use similar geographical and temporal deviously purchased by her now senile settings: small coastal communities in Pakeha neighbour, Semmons (Geoff the post-war 1950s, the period which Murphy). The multiple narrative threads saw thousands of young Māori follow coalesce around the return of her son, difficult routes, leaving their economically Rewi (Anzac Wallace), after an absence of struggling rural birthplace to seek twenty years. Rewi provides support but employment in the Pakeha towns. Both Kara’s attempts to persuade him to marry filmmakers use the medium of fiction film her beautiful niece, Ramiri (Susan Paul), to document Māori realities, using Māori are in vain. This is a troubled man with actors, settings, technicians, music and a dark secret. Not until the final act of narrative methodologies, to “decolonize the film is the mystery unveiled: he is an the screen” as Merata described it (Mita impostor and an escaped prisoner, Paki 49); inventing a philosophy of indigenous Hemapō, who stole the identity of Rewi

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Rāpana, when the latter was killed in a car character with the “land question.” Merata accident while attempting to return home. underscores this in a long, fifty second, On her deathbed, Kara instructs the now static shot-sequence of Awatea and Kara fugitive Paki to return to the scene of his setting off for a tangi, during which Kara “crime,” where he disposed of Rewi’s body, talks about her own imminent passing. and seek forgiveness. The scene explicitly evokes Dame Whina Cooper’s historic hikoi or Land March The film stages the theme of colonial of 1975. Attracting more than 60,000 land theft and restitution through supporters and 5,000 walkers, who characterisation and plot, dialogues, walked the length of the North Island to casting and mise en scène. Played by the Parliament Buildings in Wellington, fellow director Geoff Murphy, Mita’s “in a powerful and innovative way, the long-time partner in life and art (also co- land march embodied Māori protest producer of Mauri), Semmons is a wildly over ongoing land alienation” (Royal). and humorously exaggerated caricature, a The hikoi raised awareness of the point which has been lost on most Pakeha injustice of colonial misappropriation of reviewers, even those who have been Māori lands and ushered in an ongoing highly sympathetic to the film (Shepard process of restitution. The most enduring 122). The construction of Semmons archival image of this historical event evokes Gilroy’s reading of Frederick shows kuia Whina in the same position Douglass’ inversion of Hegel’s master- as Merata shoots Kara / Rickard, from slave dialectic: “[it] is the slave rather than behind, walking along a country road, the master who emerges from Douglass’s supporting herself with a walking stick, account possessed of ‘consciousness that hand in hand with a young child. exists for itself,’ while the master becomes representative of a ‘consciousness that Land and water are intimately related is repressed within itself’” (60). While to the spiritual cycle of life and death. Semmons clearly embodies the crazed, Being cut off from the land thus signifies repressed nature of white racism, greed spiritual impoverishment. We see this and colonial land theft, the film attempts in the character of Paki, whom Merata to circumvent over-generalizing of the describes as an allegory or parable about character, firstly via humour, but more “the schizophrenic existence of so many importantly, by making a point of not Māori in Pakeha society” (Mita 49). His visiting the sins of the father(s) on attempted return is compromised because the son. Au contraire, Steve Semmons he has stolen another’s identity: the price (James Hayward), the opposite of his must be paid for his transgression, not so father in every way, is respectful of local much of Pakeha law (attempted theft of Māori, falls in love with Ramiri, marries money in a bank robbery gone wrong), her and returns the land. Secondly, the but of Māori law: the theft of Rewi’s casting of veteran activist Eva Rickard “Place.”[19] as Kara, fiercely nurturing mother figure The final sequence intercuts shots of of the community, already connects the Kara’s dying moments, her funeral

35 • 5 - 1 • 2014 • IMAGINATIONS A PLACE TO STAND procession, her granddaughter running see a kotuku (heron) in majestic flight to a hilltop to wave her Nanny’s spirit against a clear blue sky, as if the bird on its way, the expiation and surrender has been summoned by this final act of the fugitive, Paki. It is no coincidence of supplication. The cut takes us from that Merata shot this latter scene at dawn, imprisonment to freedom, suggesting at the water’s edge, place of spiritual forgiveness and redemption for the cleansing. The protagonist is framed troubled male protagonist. against a rock face: wrists crossed, eyes closed, chanting prayers, imploring the The kotuku is traditionally considered spirit of the dead man, the ancestors and to accompany the spirit of the dead living community he has wronged. As (especially in the case of a chief or other if in response, a sound bridge overlays respected community member) on its the end of the first scene with the journey north, to the tip of the island, chanting of tribal leader, Hēmi (Sonny to Te Reinga, the leaping off place, from Waru), watching over the dying Kara where it makes the long journey across with a group of loved ones. Intercutting the Pacific, to the originary homelands continues until Paki completes his of Hawaiki nui, Hawaiki roa, Hawaiki mission of rendering the dead man’s Pāmāmao (Hawaiki the great, the long, possessions to the sea, upon which the far-distant) and the Spirit World, Te Kara expires and Awatea, who has been Pō (the Night). The scene then cuts back watching through a window, turns to run to Kara’s tangi, the group of mourners up the hill Kara has told her will be her solemnly crossing the paddocks, now route to the spirit world. When we cut filmed with an aerial camera, in a bird’s back to Paki, the ensuing scene contains eye / spirit-eye view. Meanwhile, the no dialogue, the soundtrack composed soundtrack is gradually filled with a soft entirely of his sobbing and the gentle lament, Maringiringi noa nga roimata / lapping of the cleansing sea around the “Our tears flow unchecked,” the words rocks. As two Māori policemen arrive which Kara has previously recited to Paki to take him into custody, the elder (Don and which are also the film’s theme song. Selwyn) approaches, takes his hands Aerial shots alternate with circular, close- and the two hongi (press noses in the framed, high angle shots of the young traditional Māori greeting), exchanging Awatea standing on the hilltop, tearfully breath in a gesture of mutual recognition gazing skywards towards us as she waves and respect. Unable to take Paki into her grandmother’s scarf in a final farewell custody himself, he leaves it to his (see fig. 5). younger colleague[20] to handcuff the prisoner’s extended wrists. Cut to a medium close-up of Paki gazing skyward, holding his arms aloft until we hear the click of the cuffs like a prison door closing. This sound cues another abrupt cut, but not to a prison cell. Instead we

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A masterful combination of mise Prophetic Places to Stand in Barry en scène, montage and subjective Barclay’s Ngāti, 1987 camera align the spectator with both the kotuku and the departed kuia. Graeme Barry Barclay’s first fiction feature, Ngāti, Cowley’s sweeping, circular, aerial 1987, is “...widely credited as being the cinematography takes the spectator on first fiction feature by a member of the spirit journey over land and sea; flying an Indigenous community” (Murray northwards but looking back, ensuring 1). Ngāti (tribe, people) is set in 1948, and reaffirming that the mauri of the in post-war rural NZ, in a small community lives on, symbolically (fictitious) coastal community similar invested in the young girl whose name, to that of Mauri. The narrative’s three Awatea, means dawn. interwoven plot strands enable the film to straddle several genres: romance, family melodrama, and what, in European terms, might be best described as neo-realist social drama. In the romance / melodrama plot line, a local born, Australian-raised doctor (Ross Girven) returns “home” for a holiday. The handsome but precocious young “Aussie” redneck is gently “re-educated” Fig. 5 Awatea upon the hilltop by the locals, before discovering that We see Merata not simply drawing on his biological mother was Māori, then the symbolism of the kotuku as spirit falling in love with the local (Pakeha) guide here, but imbuing it with multiple schoolteacher (Judy MacIntosh). The meanings which her subjective, winged family melodrama centres on the illness of camera, breathtaking land- and seascapes, Rōpata (Oliver Jones), a young Māori boy and Hirini Melbourne’s poignant, dying of leukemia, and the failed attempts mounting musical score elevate to the of the sympathetic Pakeha doctor (father level of what can only be described of the school teacher, played by Norman as the cinematic sublime (Freeland). Fletcher) and Māori tohunga (healer) to Imprisonment and surrender become cure him. The social drama plot thread liberation, redemption; the pain of death, turns on an impending threat to the tight- separation, tears of loss become spiritual knit community when the Pakeha owners journey, the route back to the originary of the local freezing works (abattoir and homeland, while the mauri or life-force meat processing plant) announce plans to of the community, its rooted connection close it down, effectively putting most of with the land, is renewed. the town out of work. As one would expect, Barclay’s concept of indigenous Fourth Cinema is a deeply democratic “of the people, by the people, for the people” approach, driven by

37 • 5 - 1 • 2014 • IMAGINATIONS A PLACE TO STAND values of collaboration, community and tapestry reflecting the physical details of reciprocity. It supposes syncretic, hybrid Māori communal life” (Barclay Our Own approaches to life and work which take a Image 67).[22] lead from holistic, community-focussed indigenous values and economic practice. Sympathetic, well-educated Pakeha characters in Ngāti (the local doctor and his family) who are happily integrated within the Māori community reflect Barclay’s desire that Pakeha also have their Place to Stand, within “..a bi-cultural New Zealand that is fundamentally Māori in spirit” (Murray 62). This inclusive approach is suggested from the film’s opening: Haere mai, a traditional welcome song, plays over shots of an old bus, wending its way into the town, welcoming the viewer along with its newly Figs. 6a & 6b Scenes of communal activity returned son. Moreover, the “return” of Aussie doctor, Greg, his discovery of his Like Merata Mita and subsequent Māori Māori ancestry and integration within filmmakers, Barclay’s passionately- the community can be read as a call, held belief in indigenous rights is by Barclay, for a generation of mixed inseparable from a deep commitment blood, urban Māori New Zealanders to to inclusive cultural values, economic rediscover their roots. development and self-determination. This commitment, woven into every Both Mita and Barclay’s films share an thread of their films, with more or underlying documentary aspiration less overt didacticism (and the term that seeks to record––almost as direct- is not pejorative in the context of cinema––the lived experience of indigenous filmmaking and literature), indigenous communities, the ebb and flow is made particularly explicit within the of life and death, whether in documentary social-realist drama plotline of Ngāti. or fiction film. Thus, inNgāti as in Mauri, As mentioned, the community is we are shown numerous scenes of (most threatened with ‘mass’ unemployment often) communal activity (see fig. 6a and by the impending closure of their local 6b): shearing, fleecing, stock-droving, freezing works, which has become fishing, gathering shellfish, eels, preparing financially unviable, largely, we are told food, singing, socialising, playing cards, through the dialogues, because local eating, which serve no purpose in terms Māori are imitating the big Pakeha of driving the narrative, but are simply farms and trucking their stock to a “about” the work of documenting bigger plant further afield. As one stock community,[21] about “creating a visual drover explains: “I reckon our Māori

IMAGINATIONS • 5 - 1 • 2014 • 38 WALKER-MORRISON communities don’t know what they’re fisheries. Let us run them ourselves.” The doing any more. Pakeha send their stock problem of dwindling stock numbers is to the works, Māori send their stock to solved by Sally’s father, Iwi, who is the the works. Pakeha go fishing, bugger best stock manager in the region, greatly me days, they all go fishing.” Another respected among both Māori and Pakeha, adds: “It’s the bloody money. And to top and who has just accepted the job of it all off, the bloody farmers, Māori and managing the biggest Pakeha–owned Pakeha, they have confidence in that station, on his own terms. These are: total works down south.” We then learn that control over every aspect of the farm’s there is already little work left for the local management, including the power to drovers, since farmers are increasingly decide to which freezing-works the stock using trucks to transport their stock to will be sent. Supporting his daughter, “not “that works down south.” In other words, because she is my daughter, but because the community’s work and well-being, what she says makes sense,” Iwi declares: its ability to sustain itself via the land, “...we will form an incorporation. We will is threatened by loss of faith in its own buy the freezing works. We can and we structures, coupled with the ill-considered will run it ourselves.” adoption of individualistic, capitalist Pakeha business practice. A hui (meeting) is organised at the local marae (see fig. 7), with a couple of company representatives, who feign sadness at having to close the works before reminding the people how much they owe the company for having provided them with employment. A radical response and solution is proposed Fig. 7 Local marae (meeting) by the recently returned daughter of war veteran community leader, Iwi (Wī Ngāti has been read as a nostalgic work, Kuki Kaa). Standing to address both the and in some ways perhaps it is. Not Pakeha company men and her people, that this is a negative term for Māori, Sally (Connie Pewhairangi) retorts: “I for whom it is common to say we “walk too would like to thank the company for backwards into the future” i.e. with an providing employment. But the thanks eye on the past. More than a nostalgic shouldn’t be one-sided. The company work, however, Ngāti is also a prophetic did not build its processing business here one. Firstly, the character of Iwi displays because it fell in love with the people. an ability to find new routes, to bend It built here so it could make big profits the economic tools of modernity to the for its shareholders and directors. The service of his community in ways which company has enjoyed the sweat and also nourish their roots: in this respect labour of our people. Kapua did not (as well as in its integration of Pakeha need the company... Let us run our own characters into the Māori world), the freezing works. Our own farms, our own film constructs its rural community

39 • 5 - 1 • 2014 • IMAGINATIONS A PLACE TO STAND as forward-looking third space. society outside of the film industry––how Secondly, Ngāti acts as a prescient socio- Māori would manage the freezing works political document, made in the early and farms and fishing rights once they years of an ongoing process of redress gained collective ownership over them–– of historical colonial injustices, first and Barclay was to become critical of the foremost among which is widescale theft corporate models often adopted by iwi in of land and other resources. Since the film order to manage their newly reacquired was made, this process has seen some of resources. There is still much healthy the resources that were misappropriated debate in Māoridom as to the ability of under colonialism returned to their culturally foreign, capitalist business original tribal “owners” (Māori prefer the models and practices to deliver the term kaitiaki, which translates loosely as best outcomes for Māori communities, custodians). From 1990 – 2006, the Crown whether in the so-called culture industries oversaw NZ$900 million in financial or elsewhere. But whatever one’s views, settlements including the return of land within the context of these ongoing and forestry, into the control of iwi. In debates, Barclay’s body of work as a 2007, according to financial sources, 12% whole, and Ngāti in particular, remains of the country’s agricultural land was a powerful and positive encapsulation of Māori owned. Commercial operations Māori moves towards collective economic include farming, horticulture, viticulture, agency and responsibility. commercial forestry, gravel extraction and mining, property investments and the Battles have been won, but the war is not seafood industry. Since Ngāti, Māori have over. In 2012, iwi attempts to purchase indeed formed many economically viable 16 large dairy farms (in receivership) incorporations. Despite setbacks and were frustrated when the right-wing inevitable disagreements, we have shown government allowed the lands to be that we can “run things ourselves.” sold to a Chinese business consortium. [24] In the same year, a Māori Council Barclay’s view of cinema was a radical court action did not succeed in vision and one which is not shared arresting plans by the same government by all Māori, whether filmmakers or to partially privatise state-owned industry stakeholders. The production hydroelectric companies which depend values and aesthetics of Tamahori’s Once on the water from our rivers, recognised were Warriors, Caro’s German- as taonga (Māori treasures or resources) coproduced Whale Rider, and the younger under the Treaty of Waitangi. Māori are ’s playful, irreverent, and heavily involved in debates over land and highly stylised popular comedies (Eagle vs water that are both current and ongoing. Shark 2007, Boy 2010),[23] to name but a As historian Ranginui Walker states in few examples, are a far cry from Barclay’s the title of his 1990 alternative history of more unpolished, non-commercially Aotearoa: Kā whāwhai tonu mātou, “We focussed insider-asceticism. Similarly, are still fighting.” in terms of economic models for Māori

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For sheer reasons of space, I am aware [4] The flute is the traditional kouauau, that I have not done anything like and the voices therefore demand to be full justice to the films and concepts I read as those of the ancestors of the land, have outlined here. This overview has calling softly in a mournful, haunting nonetheless attempted to demonstrate lament. the centrality of place (land and water) to Māori narrative filmmaking. [5] Tamahori has been criticised for More importantly, it has argued for subsequently reconstructing South the importance of Māori cinema in Auckland’s suburban geography with articulating the centrality of Land and the alleged consequence of deforming or Water to an evolving sense of individual misrepresenting the social deprivation of and community identity, i.e. in (re-) his protagonists: “The dubbing or splicing constructing Aotearoa as our Place to of the physical environment in Once Stand. My hope is that this paper might were warriors indicates a more serious encourage readers to take a closer look. deformation: the social criticism implied by the impoverished condition of this Acknowledgement local culture is cloaked” (Turner 133). My subsequent discussion presents a counter- I would like to thank the two anonymous argument. referees whose astute comments and generous suggestions pushed [6] This causal link between me to broaden and strengthen my unemployment and/or cultural discussion. Na reira, ngā mihi nui ki ā dispossession and dysfunctional raua. behaviours is central to Mauri (Mita, 1988) and forms a backdrop to Whale Endnotes Rider (Caro 2002) and Boy (Waititi, 2010). [1] Māori is the indigenous term [7] Taika Waititi’s recent films are a (adjective and noun) pertaining to comic, gently critical exploration of ourselves, the indigenous people of contemporary Māori masculinity. His Aotearoa, New Zealand. Pakeha is the adult male protagonists are endearingly Māori term originally describing White failed warriors who struggle to find settlers, now used more generally for their place to stand in the contemporary Europeans. Pakeha (Eagle vs Shark, 2007) or Māori [2] My iwi affiliations, on my father’s (Boy, 2010) world. In both films, Waititi side, are to the Rākai Pāka and Ngāti comically restages contemporary Pahuwera hapu of Ngāti Kāhungunu. masculine warrior training rituals (Eagle) Moumoukai is our maunga, Te Nuhaka is or fantasy war games (Boy). In both films, our awa, Te Manutai is our marae. scenes visualising this struggle take place in a beach setting, in the liminal space [3] Once were Warriors was notably well between land and water. received in France. See Walker-Morrison 2011. [8] Beth uses the term “taku whenua tuturu,” my original or true land, of 41 • 5 - 1 • 2014 • IMAGINATIONS A PLACE TO STAND similar meaning to tūrangawaewae and 246). For a reasonably comprehensive which she glosses for her children as “my review, see Martens. piece of dirt.” [12] Brendan Hokowhitu’s reading of [9] This has been a major theme of Alan Caro’s construction of Koro (and Maori Duff’s (otherwise powerful) writings, masculinity) as simply “despotic” (128) highly contestable and heavily criticized and “abhorrently patriarchal” (129), by Māori intellectuals as based more problematically overlooks these scenes. on personal opinion / grievance than Moreover, the suggestion, in the same statistical realities or sociological and article, that key aspects of traditional historical research. See for example, R. Maori patriarchy fore-grounded by the Walker 1993 and Taylor. film (most notably, male succession) are a colonial invention is not substantiated, [10] For a reading of the shifts between either within the article or by historical novel and film, see Renes. evidence. To claim that contemporary [11] On its release, the film came in for Māori / indigenous identities have been much criticism, on the grounds that its inflected by the colonial experience glossy, “Hollywood” inspired aesthetics is self-evident. To investigate specific and uncompromising representations of ways in which this hybridization domestic and gang violence served to (re-) can be demonstrated, as Hokowhitu produce non-historically contextualised, does (by looking at the influence of demonising stereotypes of Māori for local British-style private boys’ schools on and international audiences (e.g. Pihama; Māori masculinity) is important and Turner). Indeed, some academics still merits further research. It does not take the view that in popular films such follow however, that Māori patriarchy as Warriors and Whale Rider, “colonialism is therefore a colonial invention. See is dehistoricised and depoliticised.” Hokowhitu. See for example, Wilson. Nonetheless, [13] The question of women’s rights to sit other academic commentators came alongside men, to stand and speak within to recognise that “as an allegory, the the open space of the marae atea was an film ceases to express the pathos and issue of keen national debate around the rage of the isolated individual and time the film was made. Ngāti Porou were becomes the pretext for the revelation in fact one of the most liberal tribes in of colonised space, both historical and this respect, although their women still actual” (Simmons 339). Critical reception had to fight hard for the right to speak of Warriors thus shifted to include a there (while, across the country, Māori more nuanced awareness of the ways women could and did speak within in which the film inscribes the plight the wharenui). See Bidois. of its protagonists within a critique of colonialism, as “the dystopic outcome of [14] Critics of the film (e.g. Hokowhitu, white settlement in New Zealand” (Joyce notes 11 and 14), driven largely, it would appear, by its perceived hijacking by

IMAGINATIONS • 5 - 1 • 2014 • 42 WALKER-MORRISON non-indigenous interests, also read [18] Barclay 1990 and 2003. See also Caro’s failure to frame the story within Stuart Murray’s excellent monograph a meta-narrative of colonial oppression (2008). as precluding a positive reading of its narrative resolution. Hester Joyce (Out [19] A similar theme of difficult return is from Nowhere) similarly argues that explored in The Strength of Water 2009. “The tragedy of Whale Rider is that the Directed by Armagan Ballantyne after young woman seer, Pai, is saved and an original script by Māori playwright saves her tribe in a flight into fantasy that Briar Grace-Smith, the film was co- erases their past, rendering her people’s produced by Pandora Films, the same deliverance hopeless” (248). The fact that independent German company involved such dystopian readings clearly do not in Whale Rider, and the rural coastal reflect the film’s reception by Māori and setting and child protagonists invited indigenous popular audiences (who were many comparisons between the two films. uplifted by the film’s symbolic ending) is There were no German characters this not taken into consideration. time, however. Presumably the German target audience were presumed less [15] For further discussion, see Walker keen to insert themselves into this much 2006. darker narrative of damaged, mourning people and brooding landscapes. For a [16] I would not go as far as Hokowhitu, psychoanalytical reading, see Wild. The for whom, “Menacingly, the hybrid child catalyst for the film’s central drama (the symbolizes the tribe’s sealed destiny of accidental death of a ten year old girl and becoming an indigenous component her twin brother’s attempts to deal with of global culture-like her father’s his grief) is the arrival of a stranger, whose creations in the visual arts. By blurring name, Tai, also means tide. Seeking refuge national and cultural boundaries, the in his grandfather’s abandoned house infant’s genealogical lines symbolize overlooking a wind-swept beach, Tai, like postindustrial, transnational agendas” Paki, is a fugitive, a loner seeking and (132). Worrying hints at miscegenation fearing connection, struggling to find his aside, Hokowhitu’s equating of openness place in both the Pakeha world and the to the contemporary world with selling Māori world of his ancestors. As in Mauri, out to postindustrial, globalized capital water symbolises passage, mourning, effectively condemns Māori and other the connection to the spirit world, as indigenous people to economic and evidenced by the cliff-top from where cultural stagnation. characters watch the swirling tide and [17] Episode five in Barclay’s talk about death, dying and other forms landmark Tangata Whenua TV of leaving. Water is also the rain that documentary series (1974) is entitled “A threatens or falls almost constantly during Place to Stand.” the film, especially after Melody’s tragic death: the life-giving force of water also has a darker strength. The film’s theme

43 • 5 - 1 • 2014 • IMAGINATIONS A PLACE TO STAND song, Tihore mai te rangi, (“Clear up, www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article. sky”: http://folksong.org.nz/tihore/) thus cfm?c_id=1&objectid=112121>. Acc. implores the rain to stop, lest life perish, 20.06.2013. and calls on the warming, life-giving force of the sun. Calder, Peter. “Riding High on ‘Whale’ Tale World Report: New Zealand Success [20] Temuera Morrison in an early role, of Whale Rider Promotes New Zealand plays the unlikeable, upstart young cop. Film Industry.” Variety 393:5 (2003): A2. [21] Gauthier argues that scenes of Chapple, Simon. “Maori Socio-Economic community life in Whale Rider are Disparity.” Political Science 5 (2000): 101- inspired by Barclay and Mita’s indigenous 115. approach (70). Freeland, Cynthia A. “The Sublime [22] Barclay’s intention to intercut shots in Cinema.” Passionate Views: Film, of unscripted documentary scenes of Cognition and Emotion. Eds. Carl the local people (many of whom played Plantinga and Greg M. Smith. Baltimore: themselves in the film) into the fiction John Hopkins University Press, 1999. 65- was sadly foiled by logistic and continuity 83. problems. Gauthier, Jennifer. “Indigeneous Feature [23] Merata Mita was co-producer on this Films: A New Hope for National film. Cinemas?” Cineaction 64 (2004): 63–71. [24] After almost two years of legal battles and public debate, the purchase was Gonick, Marnina. “Indigenizing settled on November 30, 2012. See Adams. girl power: The Whale Rider, Decolonization, and the Project Works Cited of Remembering.” Feminist Media Adams, Christopher. “Crafar Farms Studies 10:3 (2010): 305-319. Deal Finally Settled.” NZ Herald On- Gilroy, Paul. The Black Line (2012). 01.12. , Acc. cc. Harvard University Press, 1993. 20.06.2013. Hokowhitu, Brendan. “The Death of Koro Barclay, Barry. “Celebrating Fourth Paka.” The Contemporary Pacific 20.1 Cinema.” Illusions 35 (2003): 7-11. (Spring 2008): 115-141. . Acc. 20.06.2013. Marae: Seen but not Heard?“ NZ Herald On-Line (2000), 18.01.

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Joyce, Hester. “Out from Nowhere: Pākehā Renes, Conelis Martin. “Once were Anxieties in Ngāti (Barclay 1978), Once Warriors, But How About Maoritanga Were Warriors (Tamahori 1994) Now? Novel and Film as a Dialogic Third and Whale Rider (Caro 2002).” Studies in Space.” miscelanea, a journal of english Australasian Cinema 3:3 (2009): 239-250. and american studies 44 (2011): 87-105. ‎. Australia and New Zealand. Eds. Mayer, Acc. 20.06.2013. Geoff and Keith Beattie. 24 frames. London: Wallflower Press, 2007. 157-64. Royal, Te Ahukaramū Charles. “Māori - Urbanisation and Renaissance.” On-Line Martens, Emiel. “Maori on the Silver Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. (2009): 5. Screen: The Evolution of Indigenous Feature Filmmaking in Aotearoa/New Acc. 20.06.2013. Z e a l an d .” International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies 5.1 (2012): 2-30. Shepard, Deborah. Reframing Women: A Acc. 20.06.2013. Simmons, Laurence. “Class and Ideology Message, Kylie. “Whale Rider and in Once Were Warriors.” Southern the Politics of Location.” Metro Review 31:3 (1998): 330-42. Magazine (2003): 86–90. Taylor, Apirana. “Means Well, But… Mita, Merata. “The Soul and The Review of Maori: The Crisis and the Im a g e .” Film in Aotearoa New Challenge by Alan Duff.” New Zealand Zealand. Eds. Jonathan Dennis and Jan Listener 10.07 1993: 50-1. Bieringa. Wellington: Victoria University Turner, Stephen. ‘Once were Press, 1992. 36-54. English.’ Meanjin 58.2 (1999): 122-140. Morris, Paula. “Review of Whale Rider, directed by .” Cineaste 29:1 Walker-Morrison, Deborah, and Rayene (2003): 18-19. Ramsay. “Mon Whare, ton Faré: Building A Common House Through Translation Murray, Stuart. Images of Dignity: Barry in Pacific Literatures.” Literatures of the Barclay and Fourth Cinema. Wellington: Pacific Islands, Historical, Cultural and Huia, 2008. Comparative Perspectives. Eds. Jean Bessières and Sylvie André. Paris: Éditions Pihama, Leonie. «Repositioning Maori Honoré Champion, 2013. 231-47. Representation: Contextualising Once Were Warriors.” Second Edition. Film in Walker-Morrison, Deborah A. «‘Souls Aotearoa New Zealand. Eds. Jonathan of Warriors’: Once were Warriors in Dennis and Jan Bieringa. Wellington: France.” Te Kaharoa Vol. 1:1 Special Victoria University Press, 1996. 191-194. Edition (2011): 18-33. Acc. 19.08.2013. 45 • 5 - 1 • 2014 • IMAGINATIONS A PLACE TO STAND

Walker, Deborah. “Representing the Self, Representing the Other: The Ethics of Ethnic Representation.” International Yearbook of Aesthetics 10 (2006): 99-106. Acc. 20.06.2013. Walker, Ranginui. “Eat Your Heart Out, Alan Duff. Review of Maori: The Crisis and the Challenge by Alan Duff.” Metro July 1993: 136-37. ---. Ka whawhai tonu matou = Struggle without End. Rev. ed. Auckland: Penguin, 1990. Wild, Harriet. “Creativity and Mourning in The Strength of Water.” Illusions 43-44 (2012):13-18. Wilson, Janet. «Re-presenting Indigeneity: Approaches to History in Some Recent New Zealand and Australian Films.» New Zealand Cinema: Interpreting the Past. Eds. Alistair Fox, Barry Keith Grant and Hilary Radner. Bristol, UK; Chicago: Intellect, 2011. 197-215. Image Notes Figs. 1a, 1b, 2 Once were Warriors, dir. Lee Tamahori & scr. Rewia Brown, Communicado, 1994. (DVD: Magna Pacific 2009) Figs. 3a, 3b, 4 Whale Rider, dir. Niki Caro, after Witi Ihimaera, South Pacific Pictures, 2002. (DVD: Buena Vista Home Video) Figs. 5 Mauri, Merata Mita, Awatea Films, 1988. (DVD: Screenline 2010) Figs. 6a, 6b, 7 Ngāti, Barry Barclay, Pacific Films, 1987. (DVD: Screenline 2009)

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Deborah Walker-Morrison is Senior Deborah Walker-Morrison est Senior Lecturer and Head of French at the Lecturer et directrice du programe University of Auckland, Aotearoa/New de français à l’Université d’Auckland Zealand. Her principal research and en Aotearoa/Nouvelle-Zélande. Ses teaching interests are in French cinema, principaux intérêts de recherche son Maori Cinema, and translation studies, le cinéma français, le cinéma Maori, with a particular focus on the translation et les études de traduction (avec une of indigenous Pacific literatures. Of concentration particulière sur la European and Maori descent, her kiwi traduction des littératures indigènes du affiliations are to the Rākai Pāka and Ngāti Pacifique. D’origine européenne et Maori, Pahuwera hapuof Ngāti Kāhungunu. ses attaches à la Nouvelle-Zélande sont As well as numerous articles and book Rākai Pāka et le Ngāti Pahuwera hapu de chapters, she has published French and Ngāti Kāhungunu. Outre de nombreux American Noir: Dark Crossings (Palgrave articles et chapitres de livre elle a fait 2009, with Alistair Rolls) and Le publier French and American Noir: Dark style cinématographique d›Alain Crossings (Palgrave 2009, avec Alistair Resnais (Edwin Mellen Press, 2012). Rolls) et Le style cinématographique d›Alain Resnais (Edwin Mellen Press, 2012).

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 License although certain works referenced herein may be separately licensed, or the author has exercised their right to fair dealing under the Canadian Copyright Act.

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