Moderní Zobrazení Maorských Válečníků V Současných Novozélandských Filmech

Moderní zobrazení maorských válečníků v současných novozélandských filmech

Diplomová práce

Studijní program: N7503 – Učitelství pro základní školy Studijní obory: 7503T009 – Učitelství anglického jazyka pro 2. stupeň základní školy 7503T045 – Učitelství občanské výchovy pro 2. stupeň základní školy

Autor práce: Bc. Monika Bartoňová Vedoucí práce: Sándor Klapcsik, Ph.D.

Liberec 2017 Modern Representation of Maori Warriors in Contemporary New Zealand Films

Master thesis

Study programme: N7503 – Teacher training for primary and lower-secondary schools Study branches: 7503T009 – Teacher Training for Lower Secondary Schools - English 7503T045 – Teacher training for lower-secondary school. Subject - Civics.

Author: Bc. Monika Bartoňová Supervisor: Sándor Klapcsik, Ph.D.

Liberec 2017 , Technická univerzita v Liberci Fakulta přírodovědně-humanitní a pedagogická Akademický rok: 2Oró /2OL6

zAD^xÍ Irrpr,oMovE pnÁcp (PROJEKTU, UMĚLECKÉHO DÍlA, UMĚLECKEHo vÝNoNU)

Jméno a příjmení: Bc. Monika Bartoňová Osobní číslo: P15000626 Studijní program: N7503 Učitelstvípro základní školy Studiiní obory: Učitelstvíanglického jazyka pro 2. stupeň základní školy Učitelstvíobčanské výchovy pro 2. stupeň základní školy Moderní zobtazení maorských válečníkův současných Název tématu: novozélandských fi lmech

Zadávající katedra: Katedra anglického jazyka

Zásady pro vypTacování:

Práce se zabÝvá filmovým zobrazenim maorských l,álečníkův současných novozélandských fil- rnech, například Once Were Warriors (1994), What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? (1999), Crooked Earth (2001), Whale Rider (2003), River Queen (2005), Boy (2010), The Dead Lands (2014) a The Last Saint (2014), První část bude věnor,ána popisu tradičního maorského váleČ- rríka, který je členem kmenových struktur a často se účastníbojů proti britským kolonizáto- rům. Druhá část se bude zabývat analýzou různých zprisobů zobrazení maorských válečníkŮ v současnémfilmu a popisem typických postav, do nichž se tito válečnícist1,,1izují.Hlavními metodami výzkumu jsou studium literatury a analýza vybraných filmů. Rozsah grafických prací: Rozsah pracovní zprávy:

Forma zpracování diplomové práce: tištěná/elektronická Jazyk zpracování diplomové práce: Angličtina

Seznam odborné literatury: ADAH, Anthony. 2001. Post-and re-colonizing aotearoa screen: Violence and identity in Once Were \Marriors and What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? Film Criticism 25, (3) (Spring): 46-58,70, Accessed: April Io, 2oI4. 1 71 1 6 . http: f f search.proquest. com/docview / 2OO8g928 7?accountid_ GOLDSMITH, Ben a Lealan GEOFF eds. 2010. Directory of World Cinema: Austra]ia k New Zealand, vo1.3. Bristol: Intellect Books. ISBN 978-1-84150-373-8.

KEOWN, Michelle. 2008. 'He Iwi Kotahi Tatou'?: Nationalism and Cultural Identity in Maori Film. In ContempoIaIy New Zea]and Cinema: From New Wave to B]ockbuster, 2aO8. edited by Ian Conrich, Stuart Murray, L97 - 210. London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN: 978-1-845LI-837-2.

MORAN, Albert a Errol VIETH. 2009. The A to Z Austra]ian and New Zea]and Cinema. The A to Z Guide Series, No. 48. Plymouth: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.

SINCLAIR, Keith a kol. 2003. Dějiny Nového Zélandu. Praha: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny.

Vedorrcí diplomové práce: Sándor Klapcsik, Ph.D. Katcdra anglického jazl,ka

Datum zadání diplomové práce: 30. dubna 2016 Termín odevzdání diplomové práce: 30. dubna 2OI7

7 4^1 w. YiceU., Cý '., j,- děkan vedoucí katedry

V Liberci dne 30. dubna 2016 Prohlášení

Byla jsem seznámena s tím, že na mou diplomovou práci se plně vzta- huje zákon č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, zejména § 60 – školní dílo. Beru na vědomí, že Technická univerzita v Liberci (TUL) nezasahuje do mých autorských práv užitím mé diplomové práce pro vnitřní potřebu TUL. Užiji-li diplomovou práci nebo poskytnu-li licenci k jejímu využití, jsem si vědoma povinnosti informovat o této skutečnosti TUL; v tom- to případě má TUL právo ode mne požadovat úhradu nákladů, které vynaložila na vytvoření díla, až do jejich skutečné výše. Diplomovou práci jsem vypracovala samostatně s použitím uvedené literatury a na základě konzultací s vedoucím mé diplomové práce a konzultantem. Současně čestně prohlašuji, že tištěná verze práce se shoduje s elek- tronickou verzí, vloženou do IS STAG.

Datum:

Podpis: Acknowledgement

At first, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Sandor Klapcsik, Ph.D for his valuable advice, support, enthusiasm and time dedicated to this paper. Also for being available any time I got into a troublesome phase and needed guidance.

Secondly, I would like to thank to my parents and my partner for being such a great support throughout the process of writing of this thesis and through my years of study.

Annotation:

This thesis deals with the representation of the Maori warrior in recent New Zealand films. It provides a brief overview of the historical background. In particular, the tribal way of life and the social structure of Maori is mentioned, and the features of traditional Maori warriors are presented. The paper describes the causes and consequences of changes in New Zealand after the arrival of Europeans and subsequent colonization, the urbanization which led to the loss of traditional bonds, culture and language. During the period of revival of Maori culture, the Maori renaissance, the Maori people gradually improved their status. Due to these events, two newer forms of warriors appeared in present society, the gang members and the so-called New Warriors. Further, the focus is on the depiction of these three types of warriors via analyses of the chosen New Zealand films produced over the last three decades.

Key words: New Zealand, Maori, films, warriors, gangs, New Warriors

Anotace:

Tato práce se zabývá zobrazením maorských válečníků v současných novozélandských filmech. Uvádí stručný přehled historických reálií. Především se soustředí na tradiční způsob života maorských válečníků a hierarchii v jejich společnosti, dále se věnuje příčinám a následkům v jejich životě způsobených příjezdem a následnou kolonizací Evropany, urbanizaci, která byla hlavní příčinou ztráty jejich sociálních vazeb, kultury i jazyka. Díky období oživení maorské kultury, které se nazývá maorskou renesancí, se postupně zlepšoval jejich sociální status.

Následkem těchto událostí byl zrod dvou nových typů válečníků v současné společnosti, členové gangů a takzvaní noví válečníci. Druhá část se zaměřuje na znázorňování těchto třech typů válečníků skrze analýzu novozélandských filmů vyprodukovaných v průběhu posledních třiceti let.

Klíčová slova: Nový Zéland, Maorové, filmy, válečníci, gangy, nový válečníci

Table of Contents

1 Introduction ...... 9

2 Maori Warriors: Past and Present ...... 10

2.1 The Social Organization ...... 10

2.2 Hierarchy in Maori society ...... 12

2.3 Traditional Maori warriors ...... 13

2.4 Moko, the tattoo ...... 14

2.5 The Causes of the Change in Maori Life ...... 16

2.6 Gangs and Gang Members ...... 18

2.7 Maori Renaissance ...... 20

2.8 The New Warrior ...... 21

3 Film Analyses ...... 22

3.1 New Zealand Film Industry ...... 22

3.1.1 Maori feature films ...... 23 3.1.2 The images of Maori Warriors – An Overview ...... 26 3.2 Films in which Traditional Warrior Dominates ...... 27

3.2.1 The Dead Lands (2014) ...... 27 3.2.2 Utu (1983) ...... 30 3.2.3 Tracker (2010) ...... 34 3.2.4 Crooked Earth (2001) ...... 36 3.3 Films in which Gang Members and New Warriors Dominate ...... 38

3.3.1 Once Were Warriors (1994) and What Becomes of the Broken Hearted (1999)...... 38 3.3.2 Boy (2010) ...... 46 3.3.3 The Dark Horse (2014) ...... 49

4 Conclusion ...... 54

Bibliography: ...... 58

1 Introduction

The aim of this thesis is to present the depiction of Maori warriors in New Zealand

films produced over the last three decades. In fact, it may be considered as a

continuation to my Bachelor Thesis, which dealt with the position of Maori women

in society through the analysis of recent New Zealand films. Because the topic of

Maori men would have been too broad for analysis, therefore the topic is narrowed

down to the warrior figure, their most common archetype.1

Three types of warriors were detected: the traditional warrior, usually set in the

past, and the two new types of warriors – the gang member, who can be considered

an urban warrior within the modern environment and the New Warrior who uses

social skills and intellectual and mental rather than physical strength to fight for the

well-being of the community. Unlike the traditional warrior, the latter two types

appear in our contemporary setting. Both are usually men, especially in the films that

I analyze, but in society and certain films they can be women, as well (Gilbert 2013,

126-129, Alfred 2009, 82, 84 189 Caro 2002).

The first part of the paper supplies basic information about the history of New

Zealand and in particular of Maori warriors and their traditional way of life. The

reason their lives changed was the arrival and influence of the Europeans, first

through business, later colonization. Due to the economic growth of the country, the

era of urbanization arose and an increasing number of Maori migrated to the cities.

They were treated as “second class citizens” until the late 1970s, when the Maori

renaissance started and the Maori people gradually improved their status, which

contributed to their acceptance in society. As a consequence of these social and

1 In this case, the word “archetype“ is used in the general sense, as a typical pattern or example, not in the Jungian theory.

cultural changes, a more complex image of Maori men appeared in recent New

Zealand film productions. Besides the traditional warrior, which is usually romanticized, Maori started to be depicted in more complex ways and in more realistic settings.

The second part of this paper focuses on the depiction of Maori warriors in eight chosen films, made between 1983 and 2014. This way an overview of the three types was given, ranging from the traditional to the two new types of warriors. Films in which the main emphasis is on warrior characters were selected. Although in many ways Niki Caro’s Whale Rider (2002) would have given a good description of warriors, especially that of a female New Warrior, this film was excluded because I dealt with it extensively in my Bachelor Thesis (Bartoňová 2015, 30-40).

The thesis analyzes films in which the traditional warriors dominate.

Nevertheless, often even in these films the two modern types of warriors appear or are envisaged to a certain extent. Then the focus is on films in which gang members and the New Warriors dominate. Many times, these two types of characters are in conflict with each other, as both of them try to replace the role of the traditional warrior.

2 Maori Warriors: Past and Present

2.1 The Social Organization The Maori name of New Zealand, Aotearoa, could be translated as “the land of a long white cloud,” which signalized the existence of the island by hovering above its high peaks. The Maori discovered the land long before captain Cook. Their origin

reaches to the Pacific Islands and, according to the legend, they came from the mythical land of Hawaiki around the 13th century.

Maori, as other indigenous people according to Kahurangi Waititi, “do have a profound history of storytelling. The history can be seen through the existence of

Maori myths and legends” (Waititi 2008). They believe in mana, which is defined in

Maori dictionary as “a supernatural force in a person, place or object;” it is inherited and dependent on the spiritual importance of ancestors, and can be translated as

“prestige, authority, control, power, influence, status, spiritual power, charisma“

(Maori Dictionary 2017). The higher status the event, object or person has the more it is surrounded by mana and tapu (which can be understood as being in the sphere of sacred). A person or tribe's mana can increase from successful ventures or decrease through the lack of success. The tribe give mana to their chief and empower him/her and in turn the mana of an ariki or rangatira (a chief) spreads to their people and their land, water and resources. Almost every activity has a link with the maintenance and enhancement of mana and tapu” (Maori Dictionary 2017). Mana can be increased or decreased but, most importantly, it is an inherited feature of a person. Thus, people who were born to slaves could not become, for example, chiefs.

The Maori have overcome major changes in their society; from a tribal rural one to their colonial experience and the changes it has brought to a society in which a prevailing number of its members live in urban areas. It can be considered a fast growing population whose number is, at present, more than 40 percent higher than 20 years ago, according to the data from Statistics New Zealand. The last census was conducted in 2013, in which fifteen percent of New Zealand population identified themselves as of Maori ethnicity (Statistics New Zealand 2013).

The people are firmly bonded to their ancestors; they derive their genealogy from the first tribal ancestor who reached the land of Aotearoa. Those were considered as gods or demigods and are worshiped even today. It springs from the fact that even living elders have always been highly respected. Each individual was also closely attached to the place where they were born. The society of Maori people has never been unified: the biggest unit, also a political one, is iwi, a tribe, sometimes cooperating militarily with other tribe’s descent from the same ancestor or canoe that first landed in New Zealand (McLintock 1966).

Nevertheless, the tribe was not the most important unit of the society. It was hapu, a sub-tribe which consisted of several highly localized whanau: interrelated, extended families. Therefore, Maori people were defined by the place where they were born and by their ancestors. The main function of hapu was to control and defend their territory, which was of great importance for its people. The territory was divided into smaller sections and each of them was under the control of one whanau.

It is predominantly an economic unit which operates on day-to-day bases,

“cultivating its own land, fowling, fishing, and collecting raw material from within its own borders. It might also serve as the normal consumption unit, having one or more common ovens for the preparation of food” (McLintock 1966).

2.2 Hierarchy in Maori society The traditional Maori society was structured, based on the descent and mana that the person had. The highest position a person could get was the leader; it could be either a man or a woman, but often it was a man. This person is in Maori language called ariki and possesses the greatest mana, inherited from ancestors. Further, there were basically three ranks of people. The highest rank was gentry (including ariki

and religious leaders), then there were the commoners who were the most numerous group in the society. The lowest class comprised of the slaves, “commonly captives taken in war or their immediate descendants, [who] had no personal rights, though in practice they appear to have been treated reasonably well, and intermarriage between them and free people of low rank was quite common, the resulting offspring being free” (McLintock 1966). Very important feature of one’s personality and his or her position in the society was the way people saw themselves. Barlow claims that the

“obligations were central to self-definition [...as well as...] conducting the self in a way that honoured the collective mode of operation enabled individuals to achieve social acceptance, a sense of purpose and meaning and indeed an identity within their social word” (Barlow 1991 in Houkamau 2009, 182).

2.3 Traditional Maori warriors

Maori warriors, “fierce, undaunted warriors who fought bravely and with honor“ (Hokihanga 2017), were gathered into hapu which usually consisted of not more than one hundred warriors who were predominantly men but also women were known to fight. They usually fought for territory or to revenge an insult or disrespect.

The warriors were prepared for the battles from their early childhood. For example, they had to prove that their exclude some foods from their diet, learn martial arts – fighting with taiaha and patu (a spare and a club) – the warfare and combat tactics and to perform the traditional haka immaculately because if they performed the haka before the battle and only one of them made a mistake, it signalled bad prophecy for the war (Mader 2017). The tribe also fought for mana: the stronger enemy they defeated, the more would their mana grow. “Defeated warriors believed that they must defeat their enemies to restore their mana or sacred energy, so war was a 13

vicious cycle” (Hokihanga 2017). Another means to strengthen their mana was by consuming their strong rival or by intertribal marriage. During and after the colonization, the Maori were viewed ambivalently – on one hand as savages, which helped to justify the act of colonization. On the other hand, they were “endowed with positive qualities such as ‘physical prowess,’ ‘nobleness’ and ‘a warrior spirit”

(Hokowhitu 2008, 117). The more respectable a warrior was, the more extensive and finer was his facial tattoo, the moko.

2.4 Moko, the tattoo

Moko is a traditional Maori tattoo which was applied on their face, torso, hips and down to their knees. “Nobody except for the highest members of the tribe was allowed to have moko on the forehead, above the upper lip and on the chin”2 (Robley

2008, 17). This usually concerns men as women did not have such exceeding tattoos

– only their lips and chin.

The first mention of Maori is from Abel Tasman who visited New Zealand in

1642 but there was no reference about tattoo which indicates that moko did not exist at that time. The first person to describe it in detail was later voyager captain James

Cook in 1769.

According to Robley, two explanations exist why Maori started to use the moko. The first one is to avoid repetitive application of the warrior paintings before every battle; the second one is that it was used as a cover of the whiter chiefs fighting the darker slaves. Robley also mentions that historically tattoo was associated with the aristocracy since the Herodotus times. Te Pehi Kupe, a Maori who travelled to

2 „[Ale] nikdo kromě nejvyšších členů kmene neměl právo mít tetování na čele, nad horním retem a na bradě.“

England in 1826 claimed that the depth and richness of moko reflects the authority of a person, which does not have to be true entirely (Robley 2008, 11).

Cook claimed that all Maori he saw had black mouth, some of them had tattoos also on their faces and their bodies and by these they gained adulthood and respect.

“Some characteristic parts of moko were a sign of identity [where they come from and to which iwi they belong], recognized as a signature by the Europeans”3 (Robley

2008, 8). There are other purposes as well: to scare the enemies in fight, to distinguish themselves, but also to raise their attractiveness for the ladies.

Sir John Lubbock mentions the painful procedure during which one could not move away or show that it hurts in any way otherwise they would be considered a coward (Robley 2008, 1-8). This shows that in Maori society bravery and resiliency were important, which are significant features of a chief and warrior.

When a warrior was killed in a fight and the enemy usually cut the head off, emaciated it and then they exhibited them in their settlement as a proof of their warrior skills. Later the tattooed heads also became subject of business with the

Europeans, which resulted in decline of the moko as it caused murders only for money or that the people with rich and well tattooed were hunted as “souveniers”

(Robley 2008, 100 – 106).

To sum up, the moko was a very unique and distinctive feature for the Maori warriors.

3 „Některé charakteristické části moka na těle byly znakem identity, Evropany uznávané jako signatura.“

2.5 The Causes of the Change in Maori Life

The first encounter of the Maori with Europeans was in 1642 when Abel

Janszoon Tasman reached the shores of New Zealand and discovered the land with not much of an impact for the Maori. This changed approximately one hundred years later by the arrival of James Cook, a British explorer who disclosed the country as a new promising destination to start up business or even a place to settle down. The goods of interest for the Maori were especially firearms, in exchange for various indigenous “souvenirs” including the Maori weapons and even the tattooed heads with moko (Sinclair 2003, 27-35). As a consequence the way of fighting changed rapidly, since the battles became faster and deadlier.

But the biggest change was yet to come, which was around 1814 when the first missionaries arrived and started “saving” the savages by Christianization. It was not only the religion they brought but they also implied a different social structure – the position of men and women changed so did some of their traditional values, such as the structure of mana system (Johson and Pihama 1994, 2, Evans 1994, 2). Literacy was introduced and became an important feature around the 1830s (Ministry for

Culture and Heritage 2014).

In 1840 The Waitangi Treaty was signed between the British Crown and the

Maori. It is a document still heatedly discussed as later it was proved that the Maori translation was not quite precise. The main reason was that the Maori language did not know such institutes as, for example, sovereignty, so they used the word governance instead. As a consequence “Maori believe that they kept their authority to manage their own affairs and ceded a right of governance to the Queen in return for the promise of protection” (Ministry for Culture and Heritage 2012). There were many other discrepancies within the text. A tribunal was established in 1975, which 16

deals with inquiries against the Crown for breaching the Treaty – confiscations of land, etc.

By 1896, when a census was conducted, the non-Maori population outnumbered the Maori rapidly4. Therefore, the whole society changed its character

(Ministry of Culture 2014a). This trend continued steadily and reached its peak after the Second World War when the urbanization started, which was a logical consequence of economical growth in New Zealand. Numerous Maori people decided to move to the cities with a vision of bright future and sought employment.

They left their traditional social structure (whanau) and started their lives in the cities, although most of them did not know how to live in such an individualistic society.

Many scholars and publicly known thinkers consider this to be a negative phenomenon. The famous writer Witi Ihimaera, for example, stresses that “by the

1960s urbanisation had triggered a ‘massive discontinuity’ in Maori life, creating a new generation of urban Maori ‘removed from its roots, who did not understand their language and who had not lived the culture’” (quoted in Keown 2008, 197). This is closely connected with further problems, primarily with a “poor self-image, family violence and victimization through personal, institutional and cultural racism [...] objective indicators of socio-economic status (e.g., education and income) and general wellbeing” (Sang and Ward 2006, 265). They had to deal with the difficulty to find a decent job, as the majority of them was employed as unqualified, semi- skilled or service workers due to lack of higher education and prevailing racism towards the Maori. The requirement of their assimilation “to mainstream ‘New

4 According to the census, there lived around 700 000 non-Maori inhabitants whereas the Maori population was just under 40 000 (Ministry of Culture 2014a).

Zealand’ culture and become ‘One People’ with Pakeha” was also strongly encouraged (Houkamau 2009, 182). According to Sinclair, the migration and the assimilation resulted in three and a half times higher criminal rate among the young

Maori than the Pakeha in the 1950s (Sinclair 2003, 286). This criminality coincided with the widespread appearance of gang activities in the Maori population.

2.6 Gangs and Gang Members Gilbert offers a common definition of a gang in the preface of his book

Patched: “A gang can be defined as a structured group (of five or more people) that maintains an exclusive membership marked by common identifiers and formal rules that supersede the rules of the state” (Gilbert 2013, IX). The proportion of Maori in gangs in New Zealand is significant. Sinclair claims that “since the 1960s many young urban Maori associates in gangs such as Mongrel Mob and Black Power”5 whose members scarcely ever speak Te Reo Maori and who do not maintain contact with their whanau or marae (Sinclair 2003, 292).

This is confirmed by Jarrod Gilbert, who conducted an extensive research6 of

New Zealand gangs. He states that in the 1950s the gangs were predominantly

Pakeha, as the majority of Maori still lived in the rural areas, but with the migration wave the numbers of Maori gang members increased. The gangs in New Zealand were inspired by the American motorcycle gang Hell’s Angels. Gilbert also says that by the early 1970s the Maori gang members outweighed the Pakeha in the city gangs.

The major cause of becoming a gang member is “associated with a permanent

5 „Od šedesátých let se mnoho mladých městských Maorů sdružuje v gangy, jako Mongrel Mob či Black Power“ (Sinclair 2003, 292).

6 He lived among the gang members, building close relationships and trying to obtain internal information without becoming a member himself.

underclass” (Gilbert 2013, 45), problems with employment and accommodation, in general with low socioeconomic status and discrimination of all forms (45). Thus,

Gilbert assigns the gang membership mainly to social and economic conditions.

It is typical for the gang members to wear leather or denim jackets or waistcoats with significant patch on their back with the name of the gang and a symbol to be well identifiable and distinctive. Also it became a common habit to never wash the set of clothes they were wearing on their initiation day, so their clothes “soon became dirty and tatty” (73), which is the desired look. One member of the Mongrel Mob stated that “to wash them would be to wipe away the memory of our conquest and history” (Isac 2007, 10 in Gilbert 2013, 73).

The members usually do not make their living by work because “the heavy drinking, partying and impulsive lifestyle of a gang member often meant that work attendance was intermittent” (112). For this reason many of them tend to commit crimes of various kinds and with different seriousness.

The similarity of a gang member with a traditional warrior is especially in their characteristics such as bravery, loyalty and fighting spirits. Also they very often use tattoos as a symbol of their identity. Also, the territorial fights are very common.

However, the difference is in the way they conduct these. As Coker states in his book

The Warrior Ethos: Military Culture and the War of Terror, “gang members demand respect from others; they don’t win it. Warriors in earning it come to respect themselves all the more” (Coker 2007, 43). It is also their appearance that differs, which is due to the urban setting and era they live in and a lack of “nobleness” that is often ascribed to the traditional warriors.

2.7 Maori Renaissance The Maori voice started to be heard in the late 1970s, and so this era is called the Maori renaissance. It is the time of the revival of the Maori language and culture, and Maori being involved in high politics. It was the “educated Maori [who] challenged and attempted to reverse the effects of Maori land loss, urbanization and deculturation by advocating Maori reclaim their heritage” (Poata-Smith 1997 in

Houkamau 2009, 183). The culture is awakened by establishing the traditional meeting areas – marae within the urban environment, for example Orakei in

Auckland, “in an attempt to preserve traditional rituals and values. Many Maori began to resist pressure to ‘integrate’ into Pakeha society, viewing the process as a variation on earlier government policies of ‘assimilation’” (Keown 2008, 197-98).

The first Maori Party, which mainly advocated Maori autonomy, was founded in

1980.

The revival of Maori language, Te Reo Maori, was achieved by different means. Firstly, it became a language taught at schools: starting with courses at universities from the 1960s (Sinclair 2003, 291), later incorporated into school curriculum at lower grades of education, and establishing schools thoroughly for the

Maori. Secondly, it was through the radio and television broadcasting. The amount of time they were given in the radio was insignificant until 1988 when the first Maori radio station was established. Also, the television broadcasting has changed: until the

1960s Maori appeared on screen very rarely and if they did, it was mostly as comedians or entertainers. After numerous protests and petitions “TVNZ created a

Maori Production Unit dedicated to producing a set of Māori-language programmes”

(Dunleavy 2014) in 1980. Nevertheless, the first Maori TV channel (Te Kāea) was

not established until 2004. Its aim to reinforce and to bring the language and culture back to life is clear (Houkamau 2009, 183).

These efforts continue till the present when there are many festivals promoting

Maori culture and language. Despite these attempts, only more than a fifth of the

600 000 people who identify themselves with Maori ethnicity is able to use Te Reo

Maori and use it in conversation about everyday life and problems. There are still persisting differences in education – one third of Maori population aged 15 and more still has not reached any qualification, of which the majority are men. Only “12.3% of Maori women and 7.4% of Maori men reached bachelor’s degree or higher. In contradiction, men are more likely to find a full time employment (52.9%) than women (35.1%). Most of them, regardless their sex, were employed in part-time jobs” (Statistics New Zealand 2013 in Bartoňová 2015, 17). In accordance with these data Royal claims that “[a]lthough more Maori are becoming educated, literacy rates are still a cause for concern, housing is poor in certain areas of the country, and unemployment rates have been consistently higher than for Pakeha” (Royal 2005).

The data stated above prove that Maori, although the first inhabitants of the island, have to deal with more difficult conditions than Pakeha as their “starting point” is habitually different. In this situation, a new type of warrior is needed.

2.8 The New Warrior The New Warrior is a concept based on Taiaiake Alfred’s Wasáse: Indigenous

Pathways of Action and Freedom (2005), who defines the New Warriors as those who “make their own way in the world: they move forward heeding the teaching of the ancestors and carrying a creed that has been taken from the past and remade into a powerful way of being in their new world” (Alfred 2009, 29). In other words, it is a

person who stands up for their people, is concerned about their development and improves their wellbeing.

It is usually an intellectual leader who “is deeply committed to the regeneration of Indigenous people’s integrity and rejects stereotypes and challenges the dominant colonial discourse” (Hare et al 2011, 1). This definition does not limit the possibilities; therefore, the new warrior can take unlimited forms. The New Warrior does not reach his goals via combat or physical strength anymore, but uses different means, mostly intellectual prowess. This is what distinguishes this type of warrior from the traditional warrior and even the gang member. The similarity to a traditional warrior lies mainly in the strong leadership and emphasis on the community prosperity.

3 Film Analyses

3.1 New Zealand Film Industry The film industry in New Zealand is not a major one; on the other hand, there are several films that managed to become well-known around the world, some of them internationally awarded. The first feature film Hinemoa was made in 1914 by

George Tarr, and it is a story of love and separation. Over the next seventy years,

New Zealand filmmakers were not very productive: “the tiny industry would produce forty-two features, some of them produced of directed by American companies, targeting New Zealand’s exotic location, Maori culture, and cheap production costs”

(Thompson 2003, 236).

The breakpoint was the establishment of the New Zealand Film Commission

(hereafter NZFC) in 1978, whose main intention was to make New Zealand film

visible for the world and also “enabling the world to see New Zealanders as they see themselves” (Martin and Edwards 1997, 13 in Thompson 2003, 236). As a consequence, the whole film industry developed in New Zealand, including film criticism and film studies, as the number of films produced rose considerably

(Thompson 2003, 236).

Michelle Keown claims that in the period between 1914 and late 1970s the

Maori were always depicted through Pakeha perspective, since the producers were almost solely of European origin. Their portrayal varies – from completely being erased, “to various myths and fantasies of colonialist subjection and control: Maori as object of scientific, ethnographic or voyeuristic scrutiny; Maori as childlike or

‘ignorable savage’ subject to the paternalistic or ‘civilising’ guidance of the

European colonising culture; Maori as ‘noble savage’ whose culture is ... lamentably but inevitably giving way to the dominant and ‘superior’ settler culture” (Keown

2008, 197).

3.1.1 Maori feature films The depiction of Maori from the Eurocentric perspective changed with the

Maori renaissance, when Maori started to participate in film-making and in culture in general. The indigenous people gained “visibility in, access to and control over the media content as well as the production, distribution and exhibition processes”

(Martens 2012, 3). In the late 1990s they accomplished that the New Zealand Film

Commission declared support to the Maori projects, which also meant that they were

“included in the Commission’s decision making processes” (Waller 1996, 254 in

Martens 2012, 4). Its support even strengthened in the 2000s after several international successes. At present the Maori cinema is considered “one of the, if not the, most thriving Indigenous cinemas in the world” (Martens 2012, 5). A key figure 23

in Maori film-making and in movement for social change was Mereta Mita, who herself participated in many Maori projects. Although she was frustrated by continual rejection, she managed to make two documentaries: Bastion Point: Day

507 (1980) and Patu (1983). She gave a very vocal voice for the Maori together with

Barry Barclay (6). The first Maori-made dramatic feature was Barry Barclay’s Ngati

(1987) (7), a film set in the late 1940s in a rural area of the North Island. It portrays the struggle of Maori dependence on Pakeha as they own the land the Maori are farming. However, they manage to negotiate acceptable conditions and buy the land together. One year later, a film by Mereta Mita followed, which was Mauri (1988) – the first dramatic feature film made by an Indigenous woman (7). It dealt with postcolonial issues like “land ownership, urban migration and birth rights” (7).

These two feature films are considered as a breakpoint because they offered the

Maori perspective both on-screen and off-screen. They both intentionally included as many Maori as possible in the process of making films; they even trained them as technicians to provide them with some skills for the future (8).

The most successful Maori feature film, both nationally and internationally, was Once Were Warriors (1994) directed by Lee Tamahori (analysed later in the paper). The producers experienced troubles when applying for funding to the NZFC as they considered the film politically incorrect, showing Maori in a bad light (9).

But after its release, the NZFC “received a 327 percent return” profit (Thompson

2003, 237). The majority of cast and crew was Maori (Martens 2012, 9, Thornley

2001, 23). The film was not received well by the Maori scholars, as they claimed that it does not project the historical realities sufficiently. It has also been criticised for adopting Hollywood features (Martens 2012, 10). Yet, it became extremely popular among the mainstream audience. “Proof [...] that audiences still hold it in the highest

regard happened in January this year when Warriors was voted, in a local online poll, the best New Zealand film of all time, ahead of Boy, Whale Rider and Goodbye

Pork Pie” (NZ Herald 2014a).

But since then there were only few films with significant Maori participation and “in early 2000s, Barclay decried the persistent exclusion of Maori from New

Zealand’s state-supported film industry” (Martens 2012, 13). After 2004, when

NZFC set the goal to support Maori film-makers, the number of supported Maori projects increased significantly. To mention some which made it to the theatres:

Eagle vs. Shark (2008) and Boy (2010) by Taika Waititi, A Song of Good (2008), The

Rain of Children (2008) (Martens 2012, 13). At the same time, Martens states that there is a sign of “a fading interest of the new generation of Maori filmmakers in dealing with cultural differences and political concerns” (Martens 2012, 16).

Additionally, it has to be mentioned that there are many films produced and funded by the NZFC that are not (entirely) Maori made but deal with Maori issues or tell Maori stories. Usually they are made mostly by Pakeha but they have a Maori advisor on set, and the cast includes Maori actors. For example, this is the case with the film Utu (1983), The Piano (1993), Crooked Earth (2001), Whale Rider (2002),

The Dark Horse (2014) and The Dead Lands (2014).

Adah claims the importance of depiction of Maori identity in the cinema in his article Post- and Re-Colonizing Aotearoa Screen: Violence and Identity in Once

Were Warriors and What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?: “Like other cultural sites, cinema, as an institutional practice, has an unavoidable responsibility to the interpellation and continuity to the society it produces and is produced by” (2001,

47).

3.1.2 The images of Maori Warriors – An Overview

The paper analyzes the perspectives in which Maori warriors are depicted in the New Zealand film productions; there are three types included. The first one is a more or less traditional warrior who believes in established Maori values, lives within his whanau and hapu in a community. The second type of Maori warrior is as

Keown calls them the “urban warriors” who seek the pre-colonial values of Maori in an urban environment. Therefore, they often become members of urban gangs or just petty criminals trying to persuade themselves that they are strong enough. Lastly, a type of a warrior in New Zealand films, based on Taiaiake Alfred’s Wasáse:

Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom, is the so-called “New Warrior”. In other words, the image of the traditional indigenous warrior can turn into two newer types. First, that of gang member or criminal; second, that of the “New Warrior,” an intellectual leader.

In the history of New Zealand “Traditional Warriors ‘were often referred to as the most civilized of all savages’ (Hokowhitu 2004, 265). This ambivalent representation of the Maori warrior is apparent in several recent New Zealand and co-production films: not only those that maintain the colonizer’s viewpoint, such as

Utu (1983), the British–New Zealand adventure film Tracker (2010), and River

Queen (2005), but also those that focus on Maori tribal life, such as The Dead Lands

(2014).

In a way similar to the warrior, the portrayal of gang members is ambiguous; sometimes even within the same film, there is a wide range of images characterizing the gangs. They can appear as a community that provides shelter, support and whanau (an extended family), a group of brutal mobsters, or can be depicted ironically as bragging small-scale criminals. Such representations come to the 26

foreground in recent New Zealand films like Once Were Warriors (1994), What

Becomes of the Broken Hearted? (1999), Boy (2010), The Dark Horse (2014) and

The Last Saint (2014).

The depiction of a “New Warrior” is also very common in recent New

Zealand films. It is a person deeply committed to his community, concerned about their wellbeing, using traditions and traditional knowledge to achieve a positive development. They appear in various forms such as the social worker in Once Were

Warriors (1994), the mentally unstable chess-player Genesis Potini, who brings purpose into the lives of the young underprivileged Maori youths in The Dark Horse

(2014), and Rewi Marangai, the successful lawyer in Te Rua (1991), who eventually becomes a leader who supervises the publicity stunt against the museum in Berlin which keeps stolen Maori carvings.

It is important to note here that the New Warrior could be a woman, as well.

Paikea (Keisha Castle-Hughes) in Whale Rider (2002) becomes such a leader when she persuades her grandfather and the whole community that she deserves to become the new leader of the tribe, even though it was not acceptable before because she was a girl. She, although very young, wants to improve the general wellbeing and health of her tribe.

3.2 Films in which Traditional Warrior Dominates

3.2.1 The Dead Lands (2014) The film is directed by Toa Fraser, who was born in 1975 in London to a

British mother and Fijian father working as a seaman. He spent his childhood in

England and moved to New Zealand at the age of fourteen. He and his family settled in Auckland (NZ On Screen 2017d). Same as Geoff Murphy, he is married to a

Maori woman, so he claims in an interview for NZ Herald: “I have a very strong sense of responsibility to them [his wife and daughters] to make this film work”

(Fraser in Baillie 2014). He co-worked with Glen Standring, a New Zealand writer and producer, who completed a first class honour in archaeology but decided to devote his talent to film and Matthew Metcalfe, a New Zealand producer. Although neither the director nor the writer or producer are of Maori origin, the whole cast is, as the film is set in Aotearoa before the Pakeha came. In addition, the whole film is in Te Reo – Maori language which adds on to its authenticity. It presents the warrior culture of Maori tribes as Hongi, the son of a Maori chief, seeks revenge after the massacre of his tribe. It is an extremely violent film with visual cruelty and much blood.

The film starts with a scene of peaceful New Zealand bush with enormously high-grown Kauri trees (which are typical for North Island). It is the beginning of a scene in which one warrior slaughters another by a traditional Maori weapon – Patu.

Wirepa (Te Kohe Tuhaka), a son of a chief of a rival clan comes to unearth the bones of his ancestors who died long ago in a battle between these two tribes, so he can finally bury them. Nevertheless, his intentions are not as pure as he claims. He goes to the sacred places where he swears to his ancestors to avenge their deaths – the whole time he is watched by the son of the chief, Tane (George Henare), and the battle starts all over again. Wirepa seeks his own profit because he wants his ancestors to glory him and sing his name. His plan is to blame them for sacrilege – he destroys a scull of his own ancestor and blames Hongi (James Rolleston), the young son of Tane as he caught him watching him defiling the bones. The chief,

Tane, offers Wirepa to kill his own son in order to restore peace between the two

tribes as he wants no more wars. But Wirepa claims that they are “brave warriors.

War feeds our glory, there is no place for peace” (10:10 – 10:20).

At the following night Wirepa comes back to the village and slaughters everyone but Hongi as he hid himself in a forest. They take Tane’s head as a trophy.

Hongi, who is still only a boy of 15 years of age, sets on a journey for revenge.

Wirepa is on his way home and he has acquired such a self-confidence that no one can hurt him, not even the ghosts of The Dead Lands – the forbidden lands where his men do not want to set their foot. Hongi follows them and after a conversation with his dead grandmother he seeks help by the “flash-eating monster of the Dead Lands.”

He does not know if the warrior will kill him as everybody before him and eat him or if he will help him. At the end he chooses the second option. He teaches Hongi the warrior skills – using the weapons properly, to kill fast and explains many things about life.

They follow Wirepa and his brave warriors on their way, fighting them several times. At the end it is only Wirepa and Hongi who survive and Hongi has the choice of killing him or not; even though he desires to kill him he realizes that the vicious circle will never end – one revenge after another – and spares Wirepa’s life, but he makes him swear that he and his family (tribe) have debt towards him and that these wars will end.

The film presents qualities of Maori warriors as well as their faults as well as their emblematic way of fights. The warriors flicker their tongue and use the typical movement of their hand before a strike accompanied by vocal effects and shouts.

It is a film that incorporates elements of Maori spirituality, but it does not claim to be historically accurate. As the director states, “We walked a tightrope between tradition and innovation and made some bold choices about things like

costume, haircuts and music” (Fraser in Baillie 2014). It is obvious in the case of

Wirepa’s warriors, who all have a Mohawk-cut and are well-built. “But it's also a

Maori martial arts movie, a showcase for the taiaha and patu fighting skills of mau rakau” (NZ Herald 2014).

To summarize it, in spite of the discrepancies in the appearance of the warriors to make them more appealing, the film depicts thoroughly traditional Maori warriors as it goes back to pre-colonial times with their traditional way of life within tribal communities, weapons and martial arts and fights over the land and honour.

3.2.2 Utu (1983) A well received film, both in New Zealand and also worldwide, as it was the first New Zealand film included in the main programme of the Cannes Film Festival in 1983. The film was directed by New Zealand author Geoff Murphy, who cooperated on the script with Keith Aberdein, a British writer and producer who moved to New Zealand in the 1960s. Geoff Murphy is not a Maori author; nevertheless, he was married to Merata Mita, who can be considered “a key figure in the story of Māori filmmaking” (NZ On Screen 2017b). She was also involved in

Maori renaissance through public speaking and numerous interviews. “She was a passionate voice for Māori, and an advocate for social change” (NZ On Screen

2017b). Her participation took also the form of acting in the films: here it was the part of Matu, a woman who was part of the rebels but wanted to kill Te Wheke at the end for breaching the family ties for his own honour.

The title of the film Utu is understood in Maori language as “reciprocity” – given the context in this case, it can be translated as “revenge”. It is set in the time of

Te Kooti’s war, which was one of the last conflicts during the New Zealand wars 30

which took place in the period between 1845 and 1872 (Keenan 2012). Te Kooti was a Maori soldier who originally served in the British army but was suspected of helping the enemy and imprisoned without a trial. (He was not the only Maori who experienced this). He escaped from prison and started a guerrilla war against the

British (Todd 2016).

The film is primarily intended for the local teenage market as there is action and violence, but it also offers “a powerfully political treatment of the Maori history and whakapapa (lineage or oral tradition) directly applicable to the racial tensions and conflicts which usually lie beneath the surface of an apparently egalitarian multiracial society” (Mitchell 1984, 48).

Numerous Maori actors appeared in the film and an interesting fact is that the main character Te Wheke was performed by Anzac Wallace, who had almost no experience with acting. He stated that he could truly identify himself with the character of Te Wheke: “I can relate to that Te Wheke. It could have been me. The same anger and frustration. It is only the attitude to revenge that would have been different” (Wallace in Mitchell 1984, 49). The film is set in the 1870s, the time of

New Zealand Land Wars in which the Maori fought for their land after signing the

Treaty of Waitangi which transferred the sovereignty of New Zealand to the Brits – the problem with the treaty was that the Maori do not have such word, therefore they claim that they did not understand its actual meaning.

At the beginning of the film, Te Wheke serves as a captain in the army until he discovers that his own troops destroyed his home village and slaughtered his loved ones. At this point, he feels strong desire for utu, he calls to the gods that he must kill the Pakeha, which foreshadows his restoration to his traditional Maori warrior role including the procedure of the moko. He forms a rebel guerrilla army and decapitates

a Pakeha priest during a sermon the priest holds for a Maori congregation. To enter the church unseen he hangs the old man sitting by the back door. His vengeance continues by a raid on the Williamson’s house, which is completely destroyed and

Mrs. Williamson is killed. This starts another vicious circle as Williamson seeks revenge for Te Wheke’s actions.

Many people are killed on both sides, the Pakeha and the Maori. Every time Te

Wheke kills someone he performs a specific tongue movement accompanied also by a sound. Another interesting moment of juxtaposition is when the Maori soldiers who still serve in the army perform the haka in British uniform with the rifles. It foreshadows the inner battle each of them has to fight – to join the rebels or to fight for the British, the dilemma of where they belong to. One of these moments is captured when Wiremu, an army scout, and one of the Maori soldiers talk. The soldier who decided to join the Te Wheke’s army asks: “Why do we fight tribe against tribe? Thirty years ago, they dug a Maori bullet from my grandfather’s leg – on and on it does. It’s always the Pakeha side with those who best advance his cause.

Will we still face each other cross the battle lines in 100 years?” (Murphy 1983,

53:30 - 53:50).

Towards the end of the film, the rebels plan to attack the provisory base of the army, but at this point Williamson who has been tracking them comes in and warns the officers. The rebels attack the site and destroy most of it. Nevertheless, the army follows them and Te Wheke is captured. On the run he proves to be very heartless as he kills his own cousin because he was injured and would slow down the rebel group. Previously, he also killed Kura, a young girl who he blamed from revelation of their plans to a Pakeha officer with whom she had an affair. He executed her with an axe.

The film ends with Te Wheke’s trial, which is held in a forest where he is sentenced to death by a firing squad. There are several people who wish to be the one to trigger the gun. The first one is Matu, a Maori woman who lived with the rebels; she wants to revenge the death of several members of her family who were killed by

Te Wheke. Lieutenant Scott (Kelly Johnson) tells her that she cannot kill him as it is a military court; nevertheless, she refuses to obey and explains her reasons. But when she presses the trigger, nothing happens – they take it as a sign. The second person who desires to kill Te Wheke is Mr. Williamson (Bruno Lawrence), who is also warned by Lieutenuat Scott that it is a military court. He refuses to listen but he is not able to kill Te Wheke as he listens to a lizard on his necklace which was given to him by his Maori friend (it is believed to have a special power). Te Wheke seems to be acquiesced with his fate and execution, although he does not show any sign of regrets for what he has done.

An interesting thought presented by Robert Burgoyne in his text The Epic Film in World Culture, which correlates with the claim of this paper, is that the film can be interpreted as the metaphorical description of the 1980s New Zealand. This is the time when Maori gangs became powerful and widespread to compensate for losing the traditional bonds within Maori society as a consequence of colonisation.

Burgoyne states that the film can be taken as a reconstruction of the situation of the nineteenth-century with its references to the 1980s. In particular, it is Te Wheke’s hairstyle and clothing which remind him of those seen in the streets of New Zealand worn by the “street gang garb” (Burgoyne 2010, 250). Further, “Te Wheke’s assumption of a facial moko (tattoo) in a painful ritual also suggests the growing use of tattoos by urban Maori gangs” (250). Another link to the situation mentioned in the film was Te Wheke’s remark that 20 000 people could gather on the streets of

Auckland in hours, which may refer to the strikes of the 1980s. Lastly, Burgoyne suggests that Te Wheke’s literacy – demonstrated in the film in a scene where after plundering the William’s house he sits down and takes pleasure in reading

Shakespeare’s Macbeth with great joy – indicates the fact that it was the university graduates who were engaged in the protest movement (250).

His statement reveals that the film reflects the situation of 1980s and the peak of Maori renaissance, when they fought for their rights to produce films and books, radio broadcasting, being involved in politics, being educated and to present their culture as the original culture of New Zealand. The film’s director Geoff Murphy himself states that it was his intention to make a connection between the conflicts of the past and those happening at present in New Zealand (NZ On screen 2017a).

In the documentary Making Utu (1982), Merata Mita explicitly states the similarities between what was happening in New Zealand in the 1870s and 1980s.

“What’s [...] in the film is what’s happening today. We have that. We have Maori fighting Maori. We have Maori fighting Pakeha. We have Pakeha fighting Pakeha in

New Zealand and it’s very hard to draw the line in New Zealand along the terms of racial conflict” (Preston 1982, 4:33 – 4:49). Later on in the documentary Anzac

Wallace expresses a similar view (Preston 1982, 10:20 – 10:54).

3.2.3 Tracker (2010) The film, set in New Zealand in 1903, is a New Zealand and United Kingdom coproduction and was directed by Ian Sharp, who is of British origin. The screenplay was written by Dutch writer Nicolas van Pallandt, who has lived in New Zealand since 1994. The film tells a story of a South African veteran from the Boer War,

Arjan van Diemen, who immigrates to New Zealand after his farm was destroyed 34

and his family killed by the soldiers. He was known to the British soldiers as a

“butcher” who cut a trigger finger of the bravest high officers they captured as a sign of respect and sent it to the headquarters or the monarch. On the same day there is an incident in the port, when the Maori seafarer Kereama is having sex with a local prostitute Lucy in the stable. Three men, Sergeant Saunders and two corporals walk past after a good night in a bar and see the light. They go inside to check what is happening and start a fight. Kereama is very skilful in fighting and the men become more and more frustrated, so Sergeant Saunders grabs a hay-fork and tries to stab him, but he misses and kills one of the corporals. Immediately he accuses Kereama of the murder, who has no other choice than to run away. The army hires two trackers to find him; one of them is Arjan van Diemen. Eventually the two trackers divide and van Diemen finds him, captures him and takes him back to the port. On the way back they slowly get to know each other and van Diemen discovers that

Kereama is innocent as he had a chance to kill him on numerous occasions. This persuades him and, at the end, he helps Kereama to escape by cutting his own finger off as a proof that Kereama is dead.

Kereamu is a traditional Maori warrior with certain features of the New

Warrior. On his neck he has a pouch with dust from his grandfather’s land. When he was a boy he was forced to witness the execution of his grandfather and father, as the

British hanged them and did not even bury them. Before his grandfather died he called at him that now it is up to him to seek revenge.

After the execution he ran away, he was taught by the missionary school; therefore he can read and knows the Bible by heart. His grandfather, who also knew the whole Bible by heart, told him that “to know your enemy, you have to know his

God” (Sharp 2010, 36:06). The missioners taught them to read – all of them, so they

are not illiterate savages any more. As van Diemen states, the ability to read means that a man is educated and that education is what distinguishes a savage from a civilized man. Thus, Kereama can be considered to a certain extent already a “New

Warrior” as he is already a somewhat sophisticated warrior, a mixture of the two types, a person who fights with intellectual means.

Furthermore, it is particularly interesting that although he possesses traditional

Maori knowledge as tracking and the healing power of certain plants, he has lost the ability to kill, which is so significant for a traditional Maori warrior. He shows this several times during the film – the first opportunity is when van Diemen is taking a

“bath” in a lake but instead of killing and letting him to drown, Kereama pulls him out of the water and saves his life. A similar situation happens later in the film with the same result. In both occasions, Kereama claims that he is not a murderer.

3.2.4 Crooked Earth (2001) Crooked Earth (2001) made by Sam Pillsbury, an American born director who moved to New Zealand (Loewenstien 2001). It is another Western genre film set in the Auckland region in the late 1990s. The main plot tells a story of a rivalry between two brothers – one of them, Kahu (Lawrence Makoare), who has a gang riding on the horsebacks and involved in marihuana growing business, who desires to become the new leader of his tribe after his father’s death. On the other hand, there is

Will (Temuera Morrison), who comes back to his marae for his father’s funeral after being dishonourably dismissed from the army after twenty years of service, the only thing he seeks at present is peace and quiet. He is the older brother who is entitled to become the next leader by tradition but is not interested in the leadership. However,

he changes his mind when he sees what has his brother has done to the place and to the people he loves.

There are many scenes which focus on the fights between the white establishments represented by the police forces and the tribe. The police is trying to convict Kahu and his compotators of being involved in the marihuana and arm business. According to Barclay, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted (1999) and

Crooked Earth (2001) were “imitative Maori films’ made by ‘the white film establishment’ while ‘Maori applications are being mysteriously blocked” (Barclay in Martens 2012, 12). Remarkably, it was not until 2002 that another feature film made by a Maori director and a predominantly Maori team found its way to the theatres – The Maori Merchant of Venice (2002) directed by Don Selwyn (Barclay in

Martens 2012, 12).

Kahu is a mixture of a traditional warrior and a gang member. He desires power and leadership of his people, so he takes it. It is symbolized by the sacred patu, made of the precious green stone he gets possession of at his father’s funeral.

He is fluent in Te Reo Maori and when there are negotiations whether to sell their land to Pakeha he and his comrades perform traditional haka to demonstrate their disagreement. All they are wearing is a traditional “skirt” made of flax so their tattoos are visible, as well (except for Kahu who is wearing trousers). They claim that the land belongs to the tribe in contrary to Will and the tribal priest who are open to discussion with the government.

On the other hand, he does not show any respect to his father by not participating in the funeral ceremony to which he only emerge to get hold of the patu, unlike the “party” that he organizes in the marae later that day. The marae is also very different to a traditional one which has carved statues of their ancestors.

This one evokes more of a drug den with sprayed portraits of contemporary Maori.

Moreover, he is also involved in crime – growing marihuana, disposing of their concurrence and the arms trade. Will is forced to fight against his brother and to shoot him at the end, but they depart in peace as his brother hands him the patu before he dies. Will accepts this to improve the situation of the tribe.

To summarize, one of the main characters is depicted as the mixture of a gang member and a traditional warrior. Kahu is to a certain extent immoral, fights for power, and he is involved in criminal activities. Yet, he is seeking leadership and fights for the land rights of his tribe. The other main character, Will, is a mixture of the New Warrior and a traditional one. He is a person who distanced himself from the tribal way of life and he lives a more modern lifestyle. Nevertheless, he still believes in the traditional values, and he is ready to fight for them. The film mixes the traditional and modern way of life – tribal society, horse riding, inheriting leadership and traditions versus helicopters, limousines, guns, marihuana business and cell phones.

3.3 Films in which Gang Members and New Warriors Dominate 3.3.1 Once Were Warriors (1994) and What Becomes of the Broken Hearted (1999) The film, which is considered the first New Zealand world-wide known indigenous blockbuster (Thompson 2003, 230), was directed by a famous New

Zealand director Lee Tamahori, whose origins are half Maori (from his father’s side).

He grew up in Wellington, in New Zealand. Alan Duff, the writer of the eponymous novel which is the film based on and who also assisted in the film as a screenwriter

(Moran and Vieth 2009, 335-336), also comes from a mixed marriage. In his early childhood he was raised by his Maori uncle and later on by his uncle of British

origin. The main screenplay writer was Riwia Brown, the daughter of a Pakeha diplomat and a Maori mother. The director of photography is Stuart Dryburgh, a

London-born Pakeha New Zealander. The film was not only the first New Zealand indigenous blockbuster but also the first film made almost exclusively by Maori, cast and crew – with the exception of the two Pakeha police officers and the judiciary

(Thornley 2001, 23).

Its main importance lays in the change of depicting Maori, insofar as it is not the romantic picture that people were used to in the previous productions with a traditional tribal society in a rural setting such as Ngati (1987), Mauri (1988), and

The Piano (1993). Instead, it portrays the Maori people in the urban space, rootless, with no values and lost. They suffer from the colonist history, especially from the intendment of the colonizers “to be ‘raised’ to the level of European civilization, thus facilitating the transition to ‘one New Zealand people” (Williams 1997, 20 in

Thornley 2001, 25). It shows people whose ties to their own history have been destroyed and they do not know how to cope with the changed situation (23). They live in a different environment, the urban areas, and they lost their traditional community. Rena Owens, the actress of the main character Beth Heke, recalls memories “from her childhood when she witnessed gang violence at a pub near her home” (NZ On Screen 2017c). She says

As a Maori production (cast and crew), Once Were Warriors was a

response to such traditions of representation. This film tells the

truth about what happens to a race that has been systematically

demoralized, what’s left after you have stripped a people of their

pride and made them feel like second-class citizens. […] Here we

are seen as we are (Owen in Clinch 1994 in Thompson 2003, 235).

When people experience something like this, they tend to seek alternatives. As

Keown suggests, the participation in a gang “might be a substitution of the tribal society where living in a whanau means that people care about the others” (Keown

2008, 205-206), and the same applies, in this case, to Jake Heke’s friends – a group of unemployed alcoholics. Both of these are described with the utmost detail in the film.

A gang, which Nig (Julian Arahanga), the oldest son of the dysfunctional Heke family becomes a member of, is called the Aotearoa Toa7 gang. After he proves his dedication in a very brutal acceptance ritual, the gang provides him with the feeling of belonging, finding shelter, family, respect and in particular an identity which he obviously was not able to find within his own family. Jake and his friends also watch out for each other; nevertheless, their bonds are not as strong, which becomes obvious when Uncle Bully, one of his closest friends, rapes his thirteen-year old daughter.

The opening scene starts with a juxtaposition of a romantic, pure and tranquil

New Zealand landscape. The whole image is completed by the sounds “of traditional

Maori instruments such as koauau (flute) and the purerehua or ‘bull-roarer” (Keown

2008, 206). After the camera zooms out, it turns out to be only a billboard on the side of a road in a poor, grey and dirty Southeast Auckland suburb, where the film is set.

The situation of the family is not romantic: the mother, Beth Heke does not work and the father, Jake Heke also known as Jake the Muss (Temuera Morrison), just lost his job. He spends most of his time and money in a pub with his friends, where he builds his reputation in numerous bar fights, violently attacking everybody he dislikes. It is not only the problem with money and drinking, but also domestic violence and crime

7 Toa means a warrior in Te Reo – the Maori language

that afflicts the family. The shocking fact is that none of their friends seems to be surprised by their lifestyle. This shows that “wife-beating, while disgraceful, is acceptable behaviour, especially if the woman has the audacity to talk back to her husband” (Berardinelli 2017). To totally degrade his wife, Jake abuses her in their bedroom afterwards. The second day, one of her friends comes to visit and finds her having a morning beer with her face swollen “so badly that she does not dare attend

[Boogie’s] court hearing the next morning” (Maslin 1995) and she (her friend Mave) even jokes about it: “Jeez, woman, is that the result of one of a hell orgasm or what?”

(Tamahori 1994, 34:30) And then she ends the conversation with: “Well, you know the rules, girl. Keep your mouth shut and your legs open” (34:50).

The plot climaxes when Grace (Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell), the thirteen year old daughter, commits suicide on a solo tree in their backyard because she was raped by

Uncle Bully on one of her parents’ frequent party nights at their house. After that

Beth decides to go back to her whanau which she have left for Jake and Jake has a revenge on Uncle Bully – he beats him in the pub when he finds out the truth. The whole film ends with the sounds of sirens in the background and an act of bravery from Beth when she tells Jake that “You have got nothing I want. Our people were people with mana, pride. People with spirit” (Tamahori 1994, 1:33:30).

Jake, a good looking working man who appears as a relatively good choice of a man, a father of five children who loves his wife but the opposite is true. It turns out that he has a drinking problem so do all of his friends as they spend all their time in the pub and at home parties after the pub closes. In connection with drinking he becomes very violent towards everybody who dares to oppose him – a man in the pub, his wife and even his children. Although at times a likeable character, he always makes sure to prove the opposite and messes things up. After the drunken night when

he “showed his wife her place” he shows no pity for what he has done, he blames her from being too lippy and when he learns about the verdict that Boogie is sent away, he just asks “is that all? Is that what all this slamming of fucking door, crying and carrying on is about? Fuck. The boy is soft, it will toughen him up” (39:49 – 40:02).

One of the few cheerful moments is when they go on a family trip to see

Boogie (Taungaroa Emile), they all sing songs in the car and have a picnic not far from Beth’s native “piece of dirt” (51:27). While contemplating about their past they tell the children their story, which also explains why is Jake so insecure and needs to confirm his strength and “leading” position within his family. He comes from a long line of slaves and he fell in love with Beth who, on contrary, belongs to the nobility.

As Jake states with a noticeable bitterness in his voice, he was not good enough for the family – so they had to “run” away to get married and since then they were excluded from the society (or they excluded themselves). Therefore they both seek an alternative in an urban environment – they seek people in a similar situation, without roots, poor, and with no bigger purpose in life. They spend their time with their “boozing buddies,” whose members, in a way similar to a whanau or a gang, look out for each other. However, the bonds are not as strong, which becomes clear when no one is willing to intervene in the fight between Jake and Beth, and no one seems to be very interested in their problems. After Grace commits suicide in their backyard, her mother decides to take her back to her marea and Jake threatens her to kill her first and she replies: “You are still a slave Jake, to your fists, to the drink, to yourself” (Tamahori 1994, 1:18:16)

Nig is the oldest son of the Heke family, who joins the Aotearoa Toa gang, a

Maori gang whose one way of presenting their ethnical identity is by moko, the facial tattoo. Barber states that “in the seventies young urbanized Maori in search of

powerful symbols of ethnic identity rediscovered the art and moko found a new generation of skin” (Barber 2000). In order to become a member he has to undergo a rough acceptance ritual – the judgement day. They take Nig into an old industrial area which they use as their base. There are about fifteen members of the gang, all tattooed and patched, wearing a leather jacket or a waistcoat with a patch of the gang on their backs. They beat him up very brutally but he does not show any sign of resignation or pain. After the leader of the gang thinks that he has had enough he helps him up and tells him: “Bro, now you have met your new family” (Tamahori

1994, 37:05). The same night he gets a moko on his face and later on he meets his father in the pub and denies that it is his father in front of his friends. When they go to visit Boogie, they stop at the gang’s base and ask Nig to join, but he declines, which is very disappointing for his mother and his siblings.

Boogie repeatedly gets into trouble with the law, and finally at the court he admits to burglaries and other charges. He is sentenced to stay in social welfare custody because the judge, the police and the social worker all agreed that his parents are not able to control him. The youth correctional facility seems to be intended for young Maori boys and the social worker who is himself a Maori teaches them about

Maori traditions and Maoritanga. They learn how to perform haka and use the traditional Maori weapon taiaha. He also explains them the traditional Maori warrior values. Boogie undergoes a major change, finds his own identity and he makes his mother and her family very proud at his sister’s tangi (funeral), held at Beth’s original marae. He honours his sister by singing a traditional Maori mourning song and by this act he demonstrates his identity, his respect towards his family and ancestors and his recently gained knowledge of his own culture.

Jake is a wannabe warrior whose intentions to become a warrior largely fail as

“Jake’s understanding of what it means to be a warrior is rejected; drunken pub brawls and wife-beating have no role in life of a modern Maori warrior” (Treagus in

Goldsmith 2009, 269). Nig is clearly a gang member, an urban warrior who seeks securities in his life, going back to the Maori traditions of the moko, fighting for territory and whanau. Boogie’s character goes through a significant change: first he hangs around with street kids, getting into trouble repeatedly, but later he matures and tends towards becoming a “New Warrior” by adopting the Maori values and knowledge from the social worker and following his example.

Tamahori’s intention of depicting “another warrior in his own right” (Sklar

1995) equals the idea of the New Warrior in this paper. It is the social worker who appears to be a boring bureaucrat on the outside, wearing old-fashioned, European style clothes but a new kind of warrior on the inside, trying to convey his knowledge of the Maori to the boys in trouble, helping them to find themselves (Sklar 1995).

In an interview with Robert Sklar, Lee Tamahori claims that the film reflects the urban Maori society in the 1990s, their disconnection with roots and the pungent problems they have to deal with. He also states that the renaissance of the Maori culture was caused by the fact that young people who were raised within the urban environment “as second generation of welfare dependants” (Sklar 1995) were seeking a change. They changed their view on life by simple things, such as using their own language or learning about their culture, history, traditions, skills, and spiritualism. It helped them to gain their lost self-confidence and start building their proud culture and identity again (Sklar 1995).

He himself did not expect the film to be accepted and well-received by Maori, but the opposite became true and almost every Maori in the country has seen the

film. In a discussion he explains that it is because it is, for the first time, an accurate representation of their lives – bitter but true (Sklar 1995). As a consequence, the film had a “major influence on the whole society, especially to those in the suppressed position, the Maori women living in abusive households” (Bartoňová 2015, 23) and according to Thompson, numerous women found the courage to leave their violent husbands and seek help (Thompson 2003, 233).

There is also a sequel to Once Were Warriors, following the lives its main characters, in particular the redemption of Jake Heke who, even though long separated and distanced from his family, still lives his “old life” with a new girlfriend

Rita (Edna Stirling). He invariably spends most of his time with his friends in his local pub and drinking himself into a violent monster. After another of his excesses when he is “unable to regain control and approval of his friends and the crowd”

(Adah 2001, 53), he realizes he has a problem and attempts to solve it, but he has no idea how to do it until he meets two heavily built Maori men. They become his new friends and show him a completely “new world” to him – they go pig-hunting and camping. Along these adventures they give him valuable advice. Once he comes back he puts his life in order and starts again, trying to win back the affiliation of his children. He succeeds after he proves his dedication and love in a fight with the

Black Snakes in an attempt to save Sonny’s life – he puts his own life in danger.

It stars the same actors – Temuera Morrison, Rena Owens and many others but the director is not Lee Tamahori but Ian Mune, a New Zealand actor and director.

The alteration is very noticeable, as the portrayal of the Maori society largely differs.

The story is less focused on the family and it is set more within a gang environment.

What Becomes of the Broken Hearted (1999) begins with a gang gun fight between the Hawks (Nig’s gang) and the Black Snakes. Nig is put in a vulnerable position, on

watch, and dies under suspicious conditions, possibly shot by his own gang. The

Black Snakes are further depicted as Nig’s younger brother Sonny joins them to revenge the death of his brother (Adah 2001, 52-53). Sonny does not join them alone, he is accompanied by Nig’s girlfriend Tania (Nancy Bruning) and his friend Mookie

(Tammy Davis). The leader of the gang, Apeman, appears to be utterly bad, calculating and cruel. He, as many other members of gangs, wears dreadlocks and full-beard. De does not distinguish himself from the other gang members via clothes, he also wears his black leather waistcoat and black leather trousers, but through his position, he claims all the women he wants, including Tania and money.

Even though the members of the gang live in a city, they still seek respect

(mana) and revenge (utu). The gang is populous, hierarchically organized and, like most gangs, isolated from the society. Nevertheless, their relative openness to the society is exemplified by a scene where they have a big party in their “den,” and although they secure their property, seemingly an old factory hall, there are people at the party who clearly do not belong to the gang. The gang depicted in the sequel differs considerably from the Aotearoa Toa gang of Once Were Warriors. The emphasis is laid upon the parties at the den and the gang is more artificial, does not even constitute the substitution for whanau (family).

3.3.2 Boy (2010) Boy is a film written and directed by Taika Waititi who was born in

Raukokore region, New Zealand to a Maori father and a Pakeha mother. He started his career as an actor but was also known for his painting, photography and as a stand up comedian (NZ On Screen 2017a). On TEDx Doha, he admits that he loves

Michael Jackson in his real life, too. Actually, he states that Michael Jackson was

one of his many childhood obsessions (Waititi TEDx, 2010, 10:20 – 10:30), same as in the case of the main character in Boy. Furthermore, he plays one of the major characters in the film – Alamein, the father. There were three producers involved in the making of the film, one of which was Cliff Curtis (who played Genesis Potini in

The Dark Horse). The other two are Ainsley Gardiner, who is also of Maori origin and often cooperates in Maori film projects (Lyra H., 2017) and Emanuel Michael who has American roots. The main character is played by James Rollerston (also starred in The Dark Horse and The Dead Lands), after, more or less accidentally, participating in a casting at his school (V. Kotek 2014, 14:54 – 15:55).

Boy is an ironical portrayal of a minor criminal Alamein (Taika Waititi), who desires to be a member of a gang or, even better, to have a gang of his own.

Therefore, he sets up his own gang called Crazy Horses, which consists only of three people – him and two other, even more comic and pitiful, petty criminals.

The film starts with a scene viewing spacious fields which indicates the setting – a laid back rural area in 1984, New Zealand, in particular, Waihau Bay. It is the place where Taika Waititi grew up and the house where most of the film is set is actually his aunt’s house (IMDb 2017b). After a cut, a boy standing in front of a class answers the question: Who am I? He presents himself as Boy (James

Rolleston), but his real name is Alamein – same as his father’s name. He is eleven and he claims his adoration to Michael Jackson.

He lives in a house with his grandmother, cousins, a goat and his six-year old brother Rocky because his father is in prison for robbery. His mother is not present in the film because she died while giving birth to Rocky. His friend Dynasty (Moerangi

Tihore) “does afterschool gardening [growing marihuana] work for her dad” (2:58 –

3:06), who is a “real” gang member which is indicated by a snapshot on his leather

waistcoat with a patch and later when the gang he is in confronts Alamein and his

“gang” after they harvest their whole crop of marihuana and they beat the Crazy

Horses rapidly.

Alamein is a reckless father (although he has some good moments) who returns home for only one reason: to find a bag of money he buried several years ago, before he went to jail. The whole film is about a short period of time, a few days, when Boy’s grandmother goes to a funeral and unexpectedly his father comes into the boy’s lives again. The film portrays their ups and downs, the process of getting to know each other again, but mainly it is Alamein’s failure to be a father.

Alamein establishes a gang of his own with only three members; in fact, the gang is so pathetic that no one else is interested to become a member, except for Boy and another approximately thirteen year old boy from the neighbourhood. Except for its members the gang has all the other typical features: a patch, a hierarchy (Alamein establishes himself a president and even builds a “throne” for himself), and rules.

They call themselves Crazy Horses and even tattoo a horse on their shoulders – by a safety pin and ink. Their clubhouse is Alamein’s garage where he also lives.

Alamein has a bad influence on Boy as the little boy tries to be like him. He is not as responsible as usual and neglects the other children that he is supposed to look after and even tries smoking a cigarette butt of a joint. Eventually Boy perceives the true nature of his father and everything returns to normal. This has an influence even on Alamein, who admits his faults to himself and tries to solve his problems by leaving again. It is after he gets drunk in order to forget his problems again – he is not able to find the buried money, his two comrades have left him for several reasons

– he was not treating them with respect as well as he promised them to share the money they could not find. So they literally run away leaving Alamein behind. The

moment Boy realizes the truth, he stands up to him, he tells him about the goat eating all of his money and also he confronts him that he has not been there when his brother Rocky was born and when his mother died. The reason he mentions it is because Rocky came to apologize to Alamein for killing his mother (as he has always been told) while giving birth to him and Alamein wanted to hit him.

The film was very well received in New Zealand and, even though one cannot consider it as a true depiction of the Maori society of that time nor take it for a complex picture of the Maori people; however, there are some moments to which people who grew up in rural areas in 1980s can relate to. The film was, according to

Waititi, intended as a comedy but he states that some of the characters are based on the people he met in his childhood.

Most importantly, from my perspective, the character of Alamein offers a different way of depiction of a Maori warrior as a gang member, insofar as it is an ironical image. The character is neither strong, nor brave; he does not look after his family or his comrades, the other two “gang members,” as he is not good at fighting at all. Alamein’s intention of becoming a gang member largely fail in many ways, whereas there are other minor characters who are “real” gang members – tough criminals, involved in the marihuana business.

3.3.3 The Dark Horse (2014) The Dark Horse was written and directed by James Napier Robertson, a young Pakeha multi-skilled film-maker who was born in Wellington in 1982 (IMDb

2017a). The producer, Tom Hern, is also born in New Zealand. Both of the filmmakers have New Zealand origin; nevertheless, none of them has Maori roots.

Robertson decided to make this film about Potini after watching a documentary

about him. He states that Potini is a very complex person and when he first met him he had to earn his respect in a game of chess. After that they played over hundred games of chess during which they talked about Genesis’s life. He used his discussions with Genesis, although he admits that he had to “go outside the box”

(Patta 2016, 2:25) from what Genesis told him. He also involved Genesis’s friends while filming, who were actually on set; to make sure everything will be as close to reality as possible or at least that it is not in contradiction (Patta 2016).

The plot is based on an exceptional real-life chess player Genesis Potini, who suffered from severe bipolar disorder and is brilliantly played by Cliff Curtis, a

Maori actor born in Rotorua. Wayne Hapi, who plays the character of Ariki, is a first-time actor: they found him in an income office when he was looking for a job.

He is Genesis’s brother and the father of Mana (James Rolleston), who has to decide whether to go in his father’s footsteps and join the gang or to stand on his own feet and devote himself to chess playing (ScreenTalk 2014). Wayne Hapi “was actually a gang member himself for fifteen years in Black Power, which is one of New

Zealand’s worst gangs,” so he could contribute with his own experience and internal knowledge of the gang environment, in a way similar to the rest of the cast playing the gang members, who are either still in a gang or are ex-gang members (Patta 2016,

11:40).

In The Dark Horse, the gang, Vagrants Gisborne, plays a crucial part as the protagonist, Genesis Potini, a mentally ill chess player, attempts to prevent his nephew, Mana, from becoming a member of a gang and others from committing juvenile delinquency via the chess club The Eastern Knights. He offers them the chance to become a useful member of the society by providing them with the possibility of learning and playing professional chess. Mana’s gang membership is

the wish of his father, who is suffering from terminal illness, drinks heavily, and anticipating his final days wants his son to be secured after his death. To join the gang Mana has to undergo several initiation tests, some of which are very brutal. The gang is quite populous; the members drink heavily, rob houses and probably commit some other crimes, as well. It is also hierarchical where the word of the leader is utterly respected. Nevertheless, the members do not seem as loyal as in the previous films, as eventually they do not hesitate to beat up their own comrade.

Genesis Potini is a stout toothless man with an eccentric haircut, gifted by the ability to play chess masterly and to pass on his knowledge to the underprivileged children from the poor neighbourhood who are likely to end up joining a gang or becoming petty criminals. Unfortunately, at the same time he suffers from a mental disease, a severe bipolar disorder, so some of the parents are not keen on him being involved with the children. For his noble intentions he can be considered the New

Warrior, as he leads the children: he teaches them values and Maori traditions in a new extraordinary way, through chess playing. He has a great impact on them and shows them the importance of having a purpose in their lives, which they often lack in their families.

The film starts by Genesis walking along the streets in Gisborne wrapped in a patch-work style blanket, ignoring the cars that have to stop and pass him carefully, with an insane but happy look on his face, “talking agitatedly to himself” (Holden

2016). Then he walks into an old antique shop and starts playing a game of chess with himself, having flashbacks from his childhood when his older brother Ariki taught him to play the game. They also lived in a dysfunctional family as they were between five and ten years old, home alone having a cigarette and a beer. After a while he is picked up by his social worker assisted by the police and forced to go

back to the ward. He is released to the care of his brother Ariki, who is currently a gang member dealing with problems of his own so his enthusiasm is not great by any means. He moves in to the gang house where he is allowed to sleep in the room of

Mana, who is Ariki’s son. His relationship with his nephew Mana is complicated at the beginning, but he finds his way to him eventually. One day, Ariki calls a meeting of the gang leaders and he announces that he wishes for Mana to be patched on his fifteenth birthday. The head of the gang commissions Mutt (Barry Te Hira) to harden

Mana up because they “ain’t patching no child” (ScreenTalk 2014, 23:35). That includes beating him, forcing him to be involved in a robbery and even degrading him by urinating on him.

Not long after his arrival, he seeks his old time friend Noble Keelan (Kirk

Torrance), who runs a little chess club for the children. Even though Noble does not approve of Genesis’s involvement in the club, he eventually agrees that he can help the children to play chess better and participate in the junior national chess tournament. So they buy more boards and Genesis starts giving the children lessons.

He gives them motivation to accomplish something. First, he brings a beautiful set of chess figures which he connects to the Maori legend of Maui, a mythical leader and the warriors who together pulled up the land of Aotearoa. He lets the children decide which figure they want to identify with and they can keep it. Second, he teaches them how to note down the moves they make, and other basic rules of chess, through

Maori legends.

After some time Ariki gives him a thousand dollars to find a place of his own so he does not mess Mana’s head anymore. Instead of finding a house, he spends all the money on new chess sets for the club and sleeps on a monument keeping it a secret. One morning he wakes up to find Mana sleeping on his side – beaten and

urging Genesis to take him under his protective “wings.” After some hesitation he lets him join the club, even though he foresees trouble. During one of their games

Mana confides to Genesis what Mutt has been doing to him by asking: “Have you ever been pissed on?” (Robertson 2014, 58:20) In return Genesis tells him his story that he was taken to the mental hospital when he was a child, but he kept playing chess dreaming that he will “trash” his older brother one day.

After Mana learns about the date of the tournament he explodes as it is the same date as his birthday – the day he is getting patched. Genesis gathers all his courage and goes to ask for Ariki’s permission, but he does not meet with understanding. Ariki is sure what he wants for his son – the safety of the brotherhood of the gang after he will be gone. Genesis and his friends prepare performances for a fund-raising day for the tournament while Mana is being prepared for his patch – he is tattooed in the face and forced to smoke crack and rob a house. When they set on their way to Auckland, Genesis finds Mana and tells him that he talked to Ariki and that he wants him to go with them to the tournament. Mana and Michael, another boy from the Eastern Knights, manage to go through the first round. It is a nerve wrecking tournament, especially for the boy who is on his way to the final. The vast change the boy has undergone is unbelievable – from a teenager who wanted to burn down the school to a responsible young adult who cares about others and all of it accomplished by giving him a purpose and support. He wins the whole tournament but their joy does not last long as Ariki arrives, hits Genesis in the face and takes

Mana home for the ceremony.

When they get home Genesis goes through a massive mental breakdown, smashes the van’s windscreen and vigorously hits the inside of the van. He decides to drive to the gang house, finding Mana sleeping on a bench in their backyard with a

massively swollen black eye and already patched. He stands up for him not fearing anybody, not even Mutt who hits him with a metal stick several times. When Ariki sees his determination, he takes the patch back and lets them leave – broken-hearted, but with a feeling that Mana will be safe and looked after.

To sum up, in this film several characters can be considered New Warriors, primarily the main character Genesis Potini, who changes the lives of many young

Maori through chess and traditional Maori mythology. Further, Noble Keelan takes care of the neglected Maori children – he provides them with a place to spend their free time. Then there is Mana who is, at the beginning, forced to become a tough gang member, but at the end is saved by Genesis and in the last scene he is relieved and grateful.

There are also numerous gang member characters – tough and rough outlaws.

One of them is Mana’s father Ariki, worried about his son’s future after his death, therefore he wishes him to join the gang. Also there is the character of Mutt, who is not appealing by any means – neither his appearance nor his personality. He beats

Mana cruelly several times, and also humiliates him by urinating on him. (Mana was

“given” to him to make a man from him.) And lastly, the nameless gang members who stand in Mana’s and Genesis’s way to leave until Ariki agrees with it.

Thus, the film depicts the two modern types of warriors – the New Warrior, who helps the society in an extraordinary way and the gang member, who lives in a brotherhood-like society, which worships warrior fighting skills, courage and toughness, and reminds him of the traditional Maori whanau.

4 Conclusion The eight selected films vary in the participation of Maori in the making of the film. Once Were Warriors and Boy are considered Maori-made films as the 54

directors are of Maori origin and they involved as many Maori as possible in the process of filmmaking – crew and cast. They even trained many technicians to improve their qualifications and future prospects. They also hired many local people to act in the minor roles; in Boy, this was the case of even one of the main characters,

James Rollerston. Nevertheless, a majority of films depicting Maori warriors are made by non-Maori directors who are assisted by Maori advisors on set and they include a significant Maori cast. These films are: Utu, Tracker, The Dead Lands and

The Dark Horse. Finally, two films are made exclusively by Pakeha filmmakers who decided to describe Maori stories but did not include Maori advisors. These films are: What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? and Crooked Earth. Barclay considers both of these films apocryphal. According to him they are made about Maori people but miss the Maori perspective, or even dismiss the Maori applications (Barclay in

Martens 2012, 12).

On the other hand, no matter what ethnicity the filmmakers are, the range of warriors is congeneric – the characters of traditional warriors, gang members or the

New Warriors can be found in the films made by the Maori, the mixed crews and even in those made by the Pakeha. The characters are often not a pure form – usually the traditional warriors possess some modern features, for example the appearance in

The Dead Lands. There are similar references in Utu, where the fights and also the appearance are interpreted as, and compared to, the current situation of the film, such as the protests led by Maori for their regeneration and urban gang members.

The same also appears vice-versa, insofar as the Maori gang members are assigned with the traditional warrior’s features and characteristics in Once Were

Warriors and The Dark Horse. Occasionally they are assigned with positive qualities as members and leaders of communities who help the fellow Maori people, are loyal

and dedicated, and take revenge on their enemies. On the other hand, their brutality together with wretched and pathetic lifestyle is also displayed.

The character frequently in conflict with the gang members is the New

Warrior. These two types are never mixed. The New Warrior, however, is in many ways similar to the traditional warrior, as they often perform tribal dances and haka, use traditional weapons like taiaha and patu, and relate to ancient myths. This happens in the case of Will in Crooked Earth, the social worker in Once Were

Warriors, Genesis Pottini in The Dark Horse, and Paikea in Whale Rider.

The major change in representation of Maori in film came with the age of

Maori renaissance as before they were only minor characters often disappearing during the film. These characters usually portrayed the Maori as “noble” savages, traditional warriors, farmers, or the Maori were thoroughly ignored. The image of the traditional warrior was more often than not a romanticized one. On the contrary, after the Maori renaissance the depiction of Maori became more complex.

In the analyzed films, although some of the images of Maori warriors are to a certain extent romanticized, such as in The Dead Lands, the majority is not dominantly glorified. It is mainly the Maori films that intend to depict the Maori as they really are, with their problems and imperfections. In contrast to this, they also show what Maori culture is about – strong social bonds, connection to the place of birth and especially to the land, as well as their strengths and readiness to fight. In conclusion, the picture of a Maori warrior has changed significantly as it channeled into the three complex categories analyzed in this paper.

It is essential to mention that the picture of a Maori man as a warrior of any kind is certainly not the only one. There are other typical characters such as rural workers, sportsmen, musicians and politicians. These figures, however, fall outside

the scope of the present analysis. Therefore, it remains a possibility of future analysis to complete the ways in which Maori men and women are depicted in New Zealand films.

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VIDEOS:

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THE DARK HORSE at TIFF. Accessed:November 15, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a-HmYc-J7c.

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1982/overview.

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Accessed: November 10, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL71KhNmnls.

FILMS:

Whale Rider. 2002. Directed by Niki Caro. 2002. DVD. Auckland: South Pacific

Pictures .

Once Were Warriors. 1994. Directed by Lee Tamahori. 1994. DVD. Auckland:

Screentime Communicado.

The Dark Horse. 2014. Directed by James Napier Robertson. 2016. DVD. Auckland:

Four Knights Film.

Utu. 1983. Directed by Geoff Murphy.

The Dead Lands. 2014. Directed by Toa Fraser. 2015. DVD. Auckland: General Film

Corporation.

Tracker. 2010. Directed by Ian Sharp. 2011. DVD. Sheffield: Eden Films.

The Boy. 2010. Directed by Taika Waititi. 2011. DVD. Auckland: Whenua Films.

Crooked Earth. 2001. Directed by Sam Pillsbury. 2001. DVD. Auckland:

Communicado.

What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? 1999. Directed by Ian Mune. 1999. DVD.

Auckland: South Pacific Pictures.