TATARAKIHI – THE CHILDREN OF PARIHAKA

PRESS KIT

FACT SHEET:

Production companies: Rongomai Productions in association with

Gaylene Preston Productions

Director: Paora Te Oti Takarangi Joseph

Co-director: Janine Martin
Producers/Screenplay: Janine Martin, Paora Te Oti Takarangi Joseph

Executive producer: Gaylene Preston
Photography: Paora Te Oti Takarangi Joseph, Duane Phillips
Editors: Simon Price, Tracey Egerton
In English and Māori, with English subtitles

Running time: 63 mins

This film was made possible by the generous support of

TSB Community Trust, crowd funding from Pozible.com and completion funds from The New Zealand Film Commission,

View trailer here:

View video from World Premiere at Te Papa here:

Official website:

SYNOPSIS

A true story of war, passive resistance, and the children who will never forget.

In 2009, a group of Taranaki children were taken on a bus trip to visit the places their ancestors, passive resistors from Parihaka in the 1880s, were imprisoned and forced to labour in. Places like Addington Jail in Christchurch and various buildings and roads they worked on in Dunedin. Along the way, they were welcomed at local marae by descendants of local Maori who supported the prisoners at the time. It was an emotional journey, documented by Joseph’s camera and the children themselves. The narration is by the children, from their writing, poetry, song and art, expressed in a workshop after the journey.

Children, known at Parihaka as “tatarakihi” (cicadas), after their chattering noise, have a special place in the village’s history. In 1881 the children of Parihaka greeted the invading Armed Constabulary with white feathers of peace, in accord with the philosophy of passive resistance taught by their two leaders, Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi

The film records the journey of today’s children of Parihaka to these lasting monuments to the 19 years of punishment endured by their ancestors. Tatarakihiweaves a delicate tapestry of narration, poetry, song and archival image to tell a haunting story that spans five generations.

Producer/director Paora Joseph: “While it recounts days of darkness,Tatarakihi – The Children Of Parihakacarries a sense of restoration and hope,and I hope it enables continued dialogue for understanding and mutual respect of both Māori and Pākehā in the New Zealand we know today.

“This film is dedicated to the memory of all who have carried the kaupapa of passive resistance taught by Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi.”

“Just as night is the bringer of day, so too is death and struggle the bringer of life”
(Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi)

This film is dedicated to the memory of all who have carried the kaupapa of passive resistance taught by Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi.

BACKGROUND TO PARIHAKA

Parihaka is a site of immense historical, cultural and political importance. The events that took place in and around Parihaka, particularly from about 1860 to 1900, have affected the political, cultural and spiritual dynamics of the entire country.

Founded during the punitive years of mass confiscation and dispossession of Māori from their lands, by 1870 it had become the largest Māori village in the country. Two figures, Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi led the Parihaka movement. Both men were committed to non-violent action in order to resist the invasion of their estates and to protect Māori independence.

Te Whiti and Tohu established monthly meetings at Parihaka on the 18th and 19th day of every month to which Māori and Pākehā leaders were invited to participate in discussions about the injustices and to strategise resistance to land grabbing and assimilation. The ‘18th’ became a consistent institution for the Parihaka movement, as it recalled the date of the start of the first war in nearbyWaitara, which began on March 18, 1860.

Passive resistance began with a prominent Taranaki woman by the name of Keeta who along with other women sought to remove survey pegs from their own land in Waitara. Following the land wars in Taranaki in 1860 and subsequent land confiscations, ploughing up surveyed areas, building fences across roads was a means of passive resistance that was asserted in North and South Taranaki. Te Whiti and Tohu established a community around the kaupapa of passive resistance and ensured that all actions were non-violent. A philosophy of peace for all humanity was inspired and a strategy of non-violent action was put in place. The Ploughmen and Fencers did not resist arrest and as each group was dragged away by government forces, another group took its place.

The Native Minister, John Bryce, described Parihaka as "that headquarters of fanaticism and disaffection" and subsequently Parliament passed legislation enabling the Government to hold the Parihaka protesters indefinitely and without trial. By September 1880, hundreds of men and youths had been exiled to South Island prisons where they were forced to build the infrastructure of cities like Dunedin.

Yet, the worst was still to come. In 1881, the Armed Constabulary marched on Parihaka and systematically destroyed their homes and crops then slaughtered their cattle, pigs and horses. Women and girls were raped, leading to an outbreak of syphilis in the community. It took the armed forces two months to destroy the complex.

The kaupapa of peace and nonviolent action in the assertion of Rangatiratanga (Sovereignty) and Kaitiakitanga (Rightful Guardianship), first articulated by Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi, has endured to the present day at Parihaka. Five generations later, the Morehu (survivors) continue to live and die in accordance with the philosophy as established by their leaders Te Whiti and Tohu.The descendants of Mahatma Gandhi, Daisaku Ikeda, and Martin Luther King continue a relationship with Parihaka in what has become an ongoing global peace cooperative forum. Te Whiti and Tohu have been recognized by their contemporaries as two of the foremost world leaders of passive resistance, nonviolent action and world peace.

ABOUT THE FILM

In 2009, a group of about 30 children, aged from five to 12, from the school Te Kura Kaupapa mo Tamarongo in the South Taranaki town of Opunake, set off on a journey to learn about the struggles of their ancestors. All are descendants of Parihaka, the peaceful village established in the 1860s by Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi and destroyed in 1881 by the Government-backed Armed Constabulary.

Accompanied by parents and teachers, including Ngapera Moeahu and Maata Wharehoka and senior spokesman (Whaikōrero) Rukutai Watene, the children spent almost two weeks travelling by bus from Parihaka to Wellington and then around the South Island. They visited the places the men from Parihaka, who were essentially political prisoners, were held captive in over a 19-year period in the late 19th Century. They saw the buildings, walls and roads hewn out of stone by their ancestors, and went inside the caves and cells they lived in. The children met the descendants of the local iwi who supported the prisoners and were given heartfelt welcomes onto the marae of the south.

Parihaka community filmmaker Paora Joseph was also on board the bus. With cameras borrowed from his New Plymouth workplace, WAVES Youth Health and Development Centre, a trainee sound recordist in the form of one of the WAVES students and with some of the children also operating cameras, he filmed every step, every milestone of the trip.

Filmmaker Gaylene Preston, who has a longstanding connection with the people of Parihaka and was working with Joseph on archival video interviews for them, brought her skills, resources and experience to the project as executive producer.

Joseph completed the bus trip with masses of footage, and, with Preston, secured some post-production funding from TSB Trust in recognition of the film’s value as an educational resource and some from the New Zealand Film Commission. Late in the post-production process they took the project to the crowd-funding website, Pozible, where they gathered a community of support and raised a further $10,000. They are still fundraising to enable payment of fees deferred by service providers and crew.

After the trip, Joseph and his wife Janine Martin, an artist who is co-director of the film, conducted workshops with the children to process their experience. The children made artworks, wrote poetry and sang songs. After that, they recorded the children’s songs and poetry readings in a recording studio, which gave rise to the idea of using the children’s own voices and observations as the narration for the film.

Paora Joseph expressed his approach to filmmaking in his pitch to potential funders on the Pozible crowd-funding website:

“Tatarakihi – The Children Of Parihaka isa story that invites you to be a part of life’s spectacular journey, to make a difference in a world where we are often encouraged to think more of the future and not the past. I believe this process of inviting you – The People - to invest in this film rather than large entities or organizations, brings about a personal approach that supports the very ethos that both Te Whiti and Tohu stood for.

“Te Whiti and Tohu believed in a global co-operative community, based on working with each other and the earth harmoniously and with spiritual intent. Independent and community documentary making does not follow a capitalist model, which judges success by the dollars a product makes in the marketplace, but more of a NGO or non-profit model, which judges success by the number of people it reaches and the change it effects.

“While it recounts days of darkness,Tatarakihi – The Children Of Parihaka is imbued with a sense of restoration and hope, enabling a continued dialogue for understanding and mutual respect of both Māori and Pākehā in the New Zealand we know today. This film will also provide reflection to other indigenous nations that memory of the ancient world is important within the modern context that we now find ourselves in.”

ABOUT THE FILM MAKERS

Kaiarahi/Kaihautu - Director/Producer: Paora Te Oti Takarangi Joseph

Paora Joseph is of Atihau-a-Papaarangi and Nga Rauru descent, from Kaiwhaiki Pa, near Whanganui, which is affiliated to Parihaka through longstanding family and political connections. He was given his Maori name, Te Oti Takarangi, in memory of the ancestor who led his people to Parihaka to support the philosophy of peace practiced there.

In 1986, his first job was as a youth worker on the streets of South Auckland, which led him train as a clinical psychologist, a profession he still works in when not making films. His path to filmmaking runs in parallel with his path to Parihaka, via Whanganui, where he lived for 10 years.

In Auckland, he worked as an actor with renowned Maori filmmaker Don Selwyn on some plays for theatre. Selwyn encouraged him to become a director and to find a story worth telling, pointing him in the direction of Parihaka at a time when other events in his life were also pointing that way. He moved to Taranaki, met Taranaki Pou Kuia Marge Raumati and Parihaka leader Te Miringa Hohaia. He worked with Hohaia on the Parihaka Peace Festival and the video archive project which grew out of the Festival. Parihaka kuia, Maata Wharehoka, knowing his passion for storytelling, invited him to go with the children and make a film.

At Parihaka, he met filmmaker Gaylene Preston who became executive producer of Tatarakihi: The Children of Parihaka. He regards Preston and Selwyn as mentors, saying, “They are both story-driven, their films always give justice to the story and the process of telling the story and the audience who is hearing the story. The late Don Selwyn and Gaylene Preston are like the toto weka a rare type of blood greenstone that if you are really lucky as a story teller you may bump into and when you do, hope that some of their commitment and sensibility rubs off.”

Joseph worked in New Plymouth for WAVES Youth Health and Development Centre, often taking troubled youth to Parihaka as part of their healing. He madethe Documentary Edge Festival award winning short film Hiding Behind the Green Screenabout marijuana addiction, based on one of these workshops. He also won the best up and coming director award at the same festival and the film was an official selection at the FIFO International Documentary Film Festival and the Duke City DocFest. His other film, Hikoi Wairua, was a journey with young people on the Whanganui River, made with his wife, Janine Martin.

He says his psychology work inspires his film work: “I have been listening to people’s stories for a long time in this healing profession. Film is another opportunity to heal because it can share human stories with a greater audience.”

Kaiarahi/Kaihautu - Co-director/Producer: Janine Martin

Janine Martin is an artist of Ngati kahu, Ngati Moerewa and Ngati Hine descent who grew up in Taranaki. She lived in Sydney for 10 years, where she designed and developed her own range of jewellery. She returned to New Plymouth (and Te Maunga Taranaki) where she studied painting and print making. She designed and made a range of ceramic tiles with Maori designs and words, which sold in design stores. She exhibited and sold her paintings and etchings in New Zealand galleries as well as abroad.
She and her husband Paora Joseph collaborated on the award winning documentary 'Hiding behind the Green Screen.' where she was co-producer, co-editor and art designer. The couple also did Hikoi Wairua, a documentary about a group of troubled youth who canoe down the Whanganui river.
Her art work now is multi-layers of different mediums, maps of memory, poetry, faith, and yearning. A recent triptych of 4-metre high banner paintings of the feathers of Parihaka, created as the backdrop for the 2011 Auckland Readers and Writers Festival opening show, Witnessing Parihaka, was presented to each of the three houses at Parihaka.
She says working on Tatarakihi: The Children of Parihaka was a huge learning curve: “Film is so different from painting. It’s was very challenging, learning how to weave the past and the present together in a dynamic and compelling way, to tell a very complex story simply. Film is such a powerful creative medium, it has a voice, it tells you what it wants to be, it’s like a living thing – it has a life of its own.”

Kaitiaki - Executive Producer Gaylene Preston

A long-time advocate of the importance of telling New Zealand stories, Gaylene Preston’s dramatic features as well as her many documentaries combine entertainment with a strong social message - Home By Christmas (2009), Lovely Rita (2007), Perfect Strangers (2003), War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us (1995), Bread & Roses (1993), Ruby and Rata (1990) and Mr Wrong (1985).

Preston first went to Parihaka in 1981 where she became friends with Te Miringa Hohaia and his family. In 1985 she returned with filmmaker Eruera Nia to conduct a video workshop in filmmaking which was hosted at Te Pae Pae by kuia, Kuini Tito. Twenty years later Hohaia encouraged her to work with Paora Joseph in their shared passion for recording the stories of Parihaka kaumatua (elders). She says, "Working with Paora has been inspiring. We share a background in psychology as therapists, which has made our collaboration easy. Of all the films I have made, Tatarakihi, though the least resourced in terms of funding, has been the richest and most rewarding in every other way. I feel privileged to have been involved."

She recently was executive producer and director of drama for the TV3 Platinum Fund movie Strongman and is currently executive producing a short film Ellen is Leaving by Michelle Savill, which has been selected by Roger Donaldson to be a finalist in the New Zealand International Film Festival Competition this year, and is currently involved in developing an operaset during the Parihaka siege, composed by Dame Gillian Whitehead to be directed by Sara Brody.

In 2001, Preston was the first filmmaker to receive a Laureate Award. Since then, she has received the WIFT Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contribution to the NZ screenindustry and the Documentary Edge Festival Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contribution to documentary. She is an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit for services to the film industry.