Landscape - Muttonbirders
1969 26m Television
- Nature
- NZ History
- Documentary
This Landscape documentary looks at the muttonbirding culture of the deep south, as Rakiura (Stewart Island) Māori exercise their customary right to harvest the birds for food, oil and feather down. The hunt begins with a rugged trip to the islands where hundreds of thousands of tītī (or sooty shearwater) arrive annually to breed. The kinship of birding is evident as families (and a poodle) set up camp. Soon the salty kai is plucked from burrows and sent by wire downhill to the ‘pluckhole’. This was an early gig for director Bruce Morrison (Heartland, Shaker Run).
Key Cast & Crew
MW
Mark Westmoreland
Editor
DK
Donald Kay
Sound
CH
Cedric Heward
Camera Operator
DW
Darryl Ware
Narrator












