Latest News
Tearepa Kahi: ‘I want to normalise te reo Māori’
By Aroha Awarau
The director of Muru, the highest-grossing New Zealand film of 2022, says it has helped normalise and showcase the unique te reo Māori dialect spoken by the people of Tūhoe.
Four generations of reo Tūhoe speakers appear in Muru, which was inspired by the controversial police raids on the small community of Rūātoki in 2007. Using new anti-terrorism powers, police responded to suspicions of a domestic terrorist camp operating in the Te Urewera forest.
Writer and director Tearepa Kahi (Ngāti Paoa, Waikato-Tainui) says his goal with the film was to both tell the story of the raids and highlight the unique te reo Māori dialect spoken by the people of Tūhoe.
“In Muru, we had four generations of reo Tūhoe speakers on screen, where kaumatua interact with their mokopuna and everyone in between.”
Muru stars Cliff Curtis as a community police sergeant forced to choose between his badge or his people. It grossed more than $1.5 million at the domestic box office and was sold all around the world, including a lucrative deal with US streaming giant Tubi.
Cliff Curtis plays Sergeant ‘Taffy’ Tāwharau in Muru. Photo: Screenshot
As a result of the raids, 17 people were arrested and four later convicted on firearms changes. The police were forced to apologise after the Independent Police Conduct Authority found the searches in Tūhoe were unlawful, unjustified, and unreasonable.
“I wanted the allegorical power of Muru to be a conversation starter, allowing the central issue to return to the main stage, which is easily bypassed or forgotten. Muru was a cultural and artistic attempt to protect our communities from ever facing that level of action or treatment again.”
Kahi, his wife Reikura who produced Muru, and activist Tame Iti, who portrays himself in the film and was a target during the raids, made a commitment to each other to bring the Tūhoe dialect to the forefront. The Tūhoe dialect’s significant difference to other dialects is dropping the ‘g’ in the word ‘ng’ when writing and speaking Māori.
“After our first screening of Muru with Tūhoe kaumatua, the first responses were positive. They were telling us that for the first time watching a Māori film they actually understood every kupu spoken by every actor on screen,” Kahi says.
Tuhoe activist Tame Iti and director Tearepa Kahi on set of feature film Muru. Photo: Supplied
As more people are learning te reo Māori, some language experts fear that the language will become homogenised and the distinctive dialect from different iwi around Aotearoa could be lost.
Kahi is keeping the conversation alive with his follow-up to Muru. He and Reikura collaborated with Iti and Ruātoki-based artist and poet Ati Teepa to create a four-part companion documentary, Into the Valley. The series is currently streaming on ThreeNow.
“Into The Valley was like re-shooting Muru, but without any actors,” Kahi says.
He sat down with those impacted by the 2007 raids, including police officers, AOS officers and the children who bore witness to seeing their school bus boarded, their homes raided and their parents arrested.
“Muru was a response to two raids against Tūhoe, a century apart. Into The Valley is a factual and personal response to Muru, that centres around healing,” he says.
“It invites the nation to understand the impact of that day from across both sides of the line and to experience what healing truly looks like, what overcoming trauma feels like. Children, 15 years on, have lived with the effects of that day, and seeing their strength will give us strength.”
Kahi, whose previous films include Poi E: The Story of Our Song and Mt Zion, is a proud father of four first-language reo Māori-speaking tamariki. He says all his work is focused on normalising te reo Māori, a key element seeded by his mentors and heroes, like fellow filmmaker Merata Mita and Iti.
“The degree of love that we have for te reo Māori is evident in all the work, my wife and our whānau create.”
VIA RNZ
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
rnz
Police say person who fired gun at officers still at large
New Zealand sides named for RLWC finals
Parliamentary Service working on extra chairs and offices for increased number of MPs
-
Latest News2 months ago‘Chilling’: Business groups speak out against National’s supermarket break-up plan
-
NZ News2 months agoTom Phillips report: The missed opportunities to find the children
-
Politics2 months agoNational vows to try to split Pak’nSave and New World
-
Latest News2 months agoCars bearing Chinese police markings stir unease in Auckland
-
Fiji News2 months agoPlans to have new Constitution by Dec 24th 2026
-
NZ News2 months agoCop who stole $68,000 can now be named as champion Muay Thai fighter Haimona Tamati-Te Paki
-
Politics2 months agoMBIE confirms botched biometric projects costs blown out to $50.7 million
-
Latest News2 months agoFive Karangahape Road venues lose their liquor licences after police intervention