Maori’s New Zealand

A film by Silvia Storchi
Original Music: Sam 0ne
Featuring: 
Sidney Rongomai Nepia – Ngāti Tuwharetoa – Taupo
Irene Wairepu – Te Arawa – Rotorua
Paitangi Ostick – Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Kahu ki Torongare, Ngāpuhi – Paihia 
www.paitangiartandink.co.nz
Anna Tiatia Fa’atoese Latu – Ngāi Tahu – University of Otago, Dunedin
Tony Kapua – Ohinemutu Rotorua
Lewis Tamihana Gardiner – Rotorua www.rakaijade.co.nz
Tawhiri Witoka and Arapeta Paea – Te Arawa – Rotorua
Georgia Tiatia Fa’atoese Latu (Ngāi Tahu and Ngāpuhi)
Teachers and students at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Õtepoti, Dunedin

I went to New Zealand with the idea that Māori identity is getting lost in modern society. I found out that Māoris have been suffering but their old spirit of warriors is still alive. There is a strong will to learn and share old ways. I met a lot of people who are playing an important role in keeping their culture alive, people who care and share, who opened their homes and their lives to me, a foreigner who suddenly shows up in one’s life asking a question I wouldn’t have been able to answer myself: ‘Who are you?’.

Like with all indigenous populations, if we talk about Māoris we talk about land and connection to the ancestral forces that govern it. We talk about symbols, rituals, ancestors, language, but also colonisation and destruction.

It was quite a deep journey for me. It made me realise how much we have in common, we are all human beings at the end of the day. We all have our traditional arts and crafts, we all used to use local plants to eat and heal, we all believe in something bigger, some God, we all lived in close contact with nature, we had symbols, ceremonies, celebrations of life and death.

Due to colonisation, indigenous populations all over the world are now fighting to keep their old traditions alive, and I think this does not get enough coverage on the media. But how about us “modern people”? We are also losing our traditions, our arts, our instincts and, even worse, we seem not to worry about it. My mum, my aunties, grandmothers, they used to sew their own clothes, housewares, they used to harvest wild plants for food and medicine. How many of us, modern generation, can spot edible plants in our own countryside? Will our children be able to speak dialect or sing our traditional songs? Do we care about all this?

This is where my journey in Aotearoa brought me. I came back with a strong will to know more about my own roots.

I believe ancient cultures are still connected to something we have been disconnected to, in a modern materialistic consumer-oriented world. They can teach us to live in harmony with nature, to be inclusive, respectful, humble, to listen to the land, to step back a little and live with it, not just take from it. They inspired another way to think in our world today.

With this project I share what I heard from the natives of Aotearoa. With a massive thank you to all the New Zealanders who have supported this in many many ways. Please find below some extra raw footage excerpts from the interviews I took.

Paitangi Ostick

Paitangi is a tattoo artist, weaver, carver, painter, a spiritual woman from Ngati Wai, Ngati Kahu Ki Torongare, Ngapuhi tribes. She lives in Paihia, North Island.

Sidney Rongomai Nepia

Sidney is a Māori man from Ngati Tuwharetoa tribe, he lives on the shores of lake Taupo where he has recently come back after living in Australia. He provides food to his community by fishing, hunting and taking care of a communal veggie garden he has made.

Anna Tiatia Fa’atoese Latu

Anna is a Ngāi Tahu woman who works in Māori health at the University of Otago, Dunedin, South Island. Her daughter Georgia (Ngāi Tahu & Ngāpuhi tribes) attends the local Māori school Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Õtepoti where I was invited to assist to a morning class.

Irene Wairepo

Irene -Te Arawa tribe, Rotorua- is a grandmother of 24 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. She was brought up as Pakeha, European, in a time when it was forbidden to speak Māori language in New Zealand. Now she feels the urge to catch up on her Māori roots and she is studying to learn language and culture.

Lewis Tamihana Gardiner

Lewis is a traditional Māori jade carver from Rotorua, North island. He owns and runs a jade shop where he also teaches young Māoris the art of jade carving. www.rakaijade.co.nz

Tony Kapua

Tony is a Māori master wood carver, taught by his father who was taught by his grandfather. He teaches young carvers the traditional way, he works and sells his handcrafts in his homeplace, Ohinemutu, a traditional Māori  village in the heart of Rotorua.