This paper discusses and provides an analysis of how some films are depicted by the indigenous people of New Zealand. These films include The piano, Once were warriors and Whale Rider. To bring us to a better understanding on this, the reception of these films by the New Zealand citizenry, including Maori groups will be focused on. In this essay, I evaluate a number of aspects as they are implicated in the films.
The native language of the Maori people is the Maoritanga. They are believed to have migrated to New Zealand from Cook Islands by canoes around 9th century to 13th century AD. Thus they boast of living in New Zealand for over a thousand years. Their strong rich culture was uninterrupted till the arrival of the European settlers in the 18th century and the 19th century. Currently, they occupy the Northern Islands of New Zealand and form about 15 percent of the countries population. All the three films under review have their setting within this Maori people and their culture.
Produced in 1993, The piano is an intriguing story about a mute woman of Scottish origin who is married off to a man in New Zealand of the indigenous people called the Maori group. The woman named Ada McGrath together with her young daughter Flora arrive by ship to find no one waiting for them even the husband to be, Alistair Stewart. They have no option but to pass the cold night there in a shabby tent. Among the items Ada has brought over is her treasured musical instrument; the piano. Though she cannot express herself by word of mouth, she has mastered skillfully the art of playing the piano such that it is now her creative way of expressing herself. Alistair arrives the next day with his friend Baines to pick her. Baines belongs to none of the indingenous people of New Zealand but has has integrated with the people to the extent he has been tattoed on his forehead. To add disappointment to the misfortunes of Ada, Alistair claims that his house has no room for the piano. Therefore, Ada is separated from her piano. As the story unfolds it is evident that Ada never forms friendship with her husband leave alone fulfilling her conjugal rights. One day she together with her daughter goes to visit Baines and the three spend the day at the beach with Ada having the opportunity to play her favorite tunes on the piano. Baines is so impressed by Ada through her music that unites them in love. As days go by, Ada succumbs to have sexual intercourse with Baines. Soon it dawns on Alistair that her wife is having a secret affair with Baines. It is even more evident when he receives a love message meant for Baines, through his daughter Flora. This instigates a reaction from Alistair who chops her index finger that she may never be able to play the piano. Later she sends her away from her matrimonial home nullifying their marriage. She now goes to Baines. They are ready in the ship to leave New Zealand when Ada makes a weird decision to cast her piano into the ocean water.
The piano has become a film full of critism in New Zealand. It has been accused of portraying foreign culture symbolized by Baines and Ada, as prominent and oppressive to the indigenous people who are the Maori group symbolized by Alistair. The Maori groups, who belong to the Polynesian group, are the indigeneous people of New Zealand. They have a dark skin. Their economic activities include fishing and farming. The faces of the Maori men are tattoed as a mark of status, accomplishments such as killing enemies or having many wives, and for geneology purposes. Most indingenous people feel that The piano is not a story that truly should represent the Maori whether in the national or international stage.
As Pihama argues, in The piano, the imagery of Maori people is located firmly in colonial constructions and hence we receive not solely the messages surrounding the 'uncivilized savage' mentality, but we receive all the subtle, and not so subtle, messages about the place of our ancestors. Maori women we the sexual servants .It is the Maori women who cook for Baines in line with a colonial agenda which focused on Maori girls as house servants. Maori men are irrational, naive, simple minded and war like. It is Maori men with whom Baines attempts to do his suspect land deals, which again fits neatly in line with colonial expectations that men are the owners of property and therefore the decision makers in regard to its usage or sale. These are types of colonial discourses which Maori people struggle with and against. These are the colonial discourses which find contemporary expression in feature films like The piano and which are then sold to the world as an authentic depiction of our people.
Once were warriors is a 1994 film directed by Lee Tamahori and based on a 1990 novel by Alan Duff. It's central and rich theme intelligently wrought out focuses on domestic violence in one of the Maori family in the city. Beth Heke plays the role of a mother of five children who is married to an aggresive yet queit man, Jake. It is an art work that best illustrates the adverse effects of threat that financial constraints coupled with social misfortunes poses on family relationships with women and children being exposed to more danger. Each one then creates avenues of easing the pressure and the pain. One of the sons, Nig, turns to a criminal gang in the city, as mother and father entertain their guests in a pub late into the night as they drink. Jake has turned into excessive drinking. Their daughter Grace spends most of her time with her boyfriend narrating her written tales to him. Her boyfriend is a drug addict. Their other son, Boogie, is held up in juvenile. As it seems everything is beautiful this way. The brutality of the story is exposed when Beth is beaten by Jake and her blood is all over the walls. There is none to help in this kind of life as all their guests offer no intervention to their fight but cowardly leaves forsaking Beth. The criminal gang is another brutal entity. The unclean slum is symbolic of the social disorder in their lives. Though the family is faced by many odds, there is an underlying message of hope.
For this reason the story was well received internationally as a wonderful extraordinary film. Nevertheless, once were warriors faced many accusations in New Zealand based on the question of social policies and the integration of Maori group to the national community. The urban Maori seem to have lost touch with the more traditional rural Maori. As a result of forsaking the traditional cultures of the indigenous Maori people and allowing western influence to permeate their lives therefore diluting their values and customs, they sink into the miry bog of domestic violence and more social problems. The film offers a traditional conclusion aimed at coming back to the culture of the native Maori people that will guarantee a more satisfying life.
The Whale Rider is a 2002 film directed by Niki Caro and based on the novel by Witi Ihimaera. It tells yet another story of the native people of New Zealand, the Maori people. Once again, the identity of the Maori culture is put under scrutiny. This story takes a spiritual as well as a mysterious dimension. It is a rather likeable film despite its slow unfolding manner. It challenges the Maoria cultural norm of passing on leadership to males. The Maori people in the film are believed to have come into New Zealand following their leader, a boy, who was riding on the back of a whale. This boy is the legendary Paikea, the Whale Rider. Leadership had to be passed on to a direct male offspring of the leader. For many years it was an obvious tradition with no challenges. But the lineage is interrupted when a girl, Pai, lives and becomes a strong, talented person while her twin brother dies at birth. The twins are born to Porourangi, the chief's eldest son. To preserve the audacity of the 'sacred' traditions, her grandfather, Koro, refuses to acknowledge Pai as a heir to the throne and seeks a boy in the community to challenge her role. The people have no leadership and though Pai is as fit as apples of gold in a silver setting to take over, the stipulations of the traditions demands leadership from a male. Pai fulfills all the characteristics of a leader except one: She is not a male. Her determination to overcome the rejection is a great inspiration in the story.
This film is proudly received among the indigenous people of New Zealand as the Maori culture is presented in a more dignified manner. It's a story of hope and triumph over traditions. It gives the Maori people the credit of harmonizing very well with the environment and the nature as they interact with the whales.
Pihama further argue that the struggle and control of our images parallel our struggles for resources, for support, for acknowledgement of work produced, for the freedom to produce those films, which cater for the needs of Maori people generally. All of these struggles are in some aspect linked to a struggle with dominant discourses that have had their historical foundation in colonial ideologies and which ultimately served to justify the act of colonization and the dominant position of the colonizer. For myself, as a Maori woman who has both apolitical and cultural interest in the construction of image there are clearly struggles involved ,there is also the knowledge that just as books/films are dangerous they can be equally powerful. It is that which I believe calls Maori film makers to invert the negative constructions that have so long dominated, to assert our own definitions, to present and represent, to created and recreates, to provide the images that we define as part of our realities in ways that we determine; as it is we have most to gain.
In conclusion, The piano and Once were warriors films display the Maori culture facing the obstacle of colonization. Whale Rider on the other hand, represents a culture full of legacy and heritage of the Maori people.
Work Cited
Pihama, Leonie. A Different View - A Seminar on Feminist Film and Video Practice. Auckland, 1994.
