HE KIRIATA NUI: MĀORI ON SCREEN

CATHERINE BISLEY

DESCRIPTION Communicado Features Limited: Once Were Warriors production photographs, c. 1993

MAKER / ARTIST Kerry Brown or Ann Shelton

REFERENCE PA-Group-00887 (PA1-q-1172-17-2RA58/13; PA1-q-1174-046-R55/1) Below: Beth Heke (Rena Owen) is framed in a grey urban environment that contrasts with the mountain vista on the billboard above her head. Opposite: Nig Heke (Julian Arahanga) becomes a patched member of the fictional Toa gang. Here, the crew films from the back of a ute while a gang car is mounted on a low-loader rig towed behind.

In 2013, producer Robin Scholes, founding partner of the production company Communicado, donated four binders of material to the Turnbull Library. They contained a pictorial history of the making and marketing of Once Were Warriors (1994), the debut feature of director Lee Tamahori (Ngāti Porou), which Communicado had produced. The collection takes us behind the scenes to reveal the creative and practical forces behind the film.

Māori stories were being brought to the screens of Aotearoa from the early days of our national cinema, including Hinemoa (1914) and Rewi’s Last Stand (1925). But Māori had to fight to direct their own stories. Merata Mita (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngai Te Rangi; 1942–2010), whose work included Patu! (1983) and Mauri (1988), and Barry Barclay (Ngāti Apa; 1944–2008), who directed Ngāti (1987), were two key trailblazers who became champions of indigenous filmmakers both at home and abroad.

In 1994, Once Were Warriors, with a screenplay adapted by Riwia Brown (Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-āApanui) from the 1990 bestselling novel of the same name by Alan Duff (Ngāti Rangitihi, Ngāti Tūwharetoa), broke box-office records and met with critical success worldwide. Over the years, an increasing diversity of Māori voices, from Taika Waititi’s wildly popular Boy (2010) to Waru (2017), in which a single story is told from the perspectives of eight wāhine Māori directors, have continued to pump the heart of our national cinema.

The contents of Communicado’s binders not only form a unique record of a major New Zealand film, but also create a comprehensive picture of how a movie was— and largely still is — made. The collection documents the people involved, from key players to extras, along with the creative processes, from location scouting and working with actors to costume design and make-up tests. The images, taken by Kerry Brown and Ann Shelton, are striking in themselves.

The image opposite is from the iconic opening moments of Once Were Warriors, in which cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh’s camera pulls out from a pastoral utopia on a billboard to show South Auckland, the motorway and high fences, and Beth Heke (Rena Owen, Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi) pushing a supermarket trolley. It is Beth who carries us through this story and offers the film’s sense of hope. The film also starred Temuera Morrison (Te Arawa) and Cliff Curtis (Ngāti Hauiti, Te Arawa).

Tamahori’s cinematic voice is distinctive. A mixture of realism and 1990s stylisation, Once Were Warriors gave a grim depiction of the plight of many urban Māori, disconnected from their tūrangawaewae and suffering from the impact of colonisation. The film, with its portrayals of domestic violence, poverty, rape and suicide, generated considerable controversy within Māoridom itself.