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Ramai Hayward

[Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu] Actor, Director, Writer, Camera, Producer

A pioneer of New Zealand film and star of 1940 classic Rewi's Last Stand, Ramai Hayward is credited as Aotearoa’s first Māori filmmaker, camerawoman, and scriptwriter. At the 2005 Wairoa Māori Film Festival she received the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to Māori filmmaking; the following year Hayward was made a Member of the NZ Order of Merit. She passed away on 3 July 2014.

It costs a lot of money to make films, and it kept us poor. It kept us happy because it was an adventure all the time. Ramai Hayward (age 73), in a 1989 Koha TV profile